Engine Failure Forces Plane to Land on Highway 74 in Peachtree City

A pilot safely landed a small airplane on Highway 74 in Peachtree City on Friday morning, March 13, 2026, after an engine failure minutes after takeoff from Atlanta Regional Airport–Falcon Field.

Peachtree City Police Department spokesperson Lt. Chris Hyatt said officers received the first calls at about 10:30 a.m. reporting that a single-engine plane had landed on the roadway southbound near the entrance serving the Water and Sewer Authority, Fayette County Animal Control, and the city’s athletic complex.

Officers arrived moments later and found the aircraft parked in a right-turn lane with its two occupants standing nearby.

“We found the two occupants standing next to the vehicle uninjured,” Lt. Hyatt said.

Engine failure shortly after takeoff

Hope Macaluso, aviation director for Atlanta Regional Airport–Falcon Field, said the aircraft belonged to a local flight school and had departed the airport only minutes before the engine failed.

“One of our local flight schools, an instructor and a student took off toward the south this morning, and their engine failed,” Macaluso said. “They put down as quickly and safely as they could.”

Macaluso credited the flight instructor with executing a controlled landing while avoiding obstacles along the busy roadway.

“They did an excellent job with the landing, dodging wires and cars,” Macaluso said. “Obviously, no one was injured.”

The pilot contacted Falcon Field shortly after the landing.

“The pilot actually called our front desk and said, ‘Hey, I’ve landed on 74,’” Macaluso said.

Traffic impacts limited

Because of the aircraft’s wingspan, officers closed one lane while waiting for a tow service to remove the plane.

“We kept one lane southbound closed due to the width of the wings until a private tow from Griffin arrived on scene to help tow it back to the airport,” Lt. Hyatt said.

Traffic continued moving during the incident, and the roadway was fully reopened within about an hour.

“By 11:32, Highway 74 was fully open,” Lt. Hyatt said.

FAA investigation underway

The aircraft was later towed back to Falcon Field, where Macaluso said the flight school arranged for recovery.

Federal aviation officials will now investigate the engine failure.

“We checked our fuel, we called the FAA, we notified everyone,” Macaluso said. “Now it’s really in the hands of the FAA and the flight school to investigate.”

Atlanta Regional Airport–Falcon Field records about 121,000 aircraft operations each year — roughly 165 departures per day — and incidents like this remain uncommon.

“Statistically, these types of incidents don’t happen very often,” Macaluso said.

Lt. Hyatt said the safe outcome reflected the pilots’ training.

“It was a bad situation that the student and instructor aviators responded appropriately to due to their training,” Lt. Hyatt said. “I was proud of them. They did it well.”