A hiker captured video of the moment a small plane nearly crashed into a Colorado mountain on July 4, and miraculously pulled up after a nail-biting nosedive.
Jason Dunn shared a video on Facebook, captured by his son, that shows a single-engine Cessna 152 spiraling toward the ground near Devil's Thumb in Grand County and righting itself at the last possible moment, appearing to skim the ground as it regained lift.
Dunn said he was hiking up to Devil's Thumb and sitting in the saddle on the ridge at the top when a plane flew up the valley from the opposite side.
"It was clear the plane was struggling trying to clear the saddle," Dunn wrote alongside the video and photos. "It was coming straight at us, and as a former licensed pilot, I was worried it would go into an aerodynamic stall. Then it either did, or the pilot made a last ditch effort to turn the plane around in a dead end valley before crashing into the mountain (or us)."
Dunn's son was "further up the ridge line" and captured dramatic video of the near-crash.
"As you can see, he made it by less than a couple of feet," Dunn wrote of the pilot, who reportedly later landed safely at their intended destination.
The Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement that the plane stalled and descended, but landed safely. The agency said it is investigating the incident.
--with reporting by TMX
