With smoke billowing from inside the cockpit, this is the moment a co-pilot of a small airplane filmed his own crash-landing as he was on his way to a Thanksgiving family reunion.<br /><br />The pilot, a retired naval aviator and test pilot, was flying from Virginia Beach in Virginia to Birmingham, Alabama, with his son and his girlfriend on November 28, 2013, in a Beech V35 when he was forced to make an emergency landing.<br /><br />After three hours flying, the pilot heard a “loud pop” and the engine then lost total power. <br /><br />In the video, oil starts to appear on the windscreen and smoke begins to fill the cockpit.<br /><br />"The airplane was too far away to glide to the destination airport, so the pilot chose to perform a forced landing to a field," explains an official report. <br /><br />In the video, the pilot manages to reach the ground but hits some trees, eventually coming to an abrupt halt at the foot of a large tree. <br /><br />At this point, the video ends abruptly because the phone was sent flying 75ft out of the plane window, the filmer later told Newsflare.<br /><br />The lucky passengers managed to get away with only small injuries - and made their Thanksgiving dinner with their family.<br /><br />DOWNLOAD THE ORIGINAL, EXTENDED NON-BLEEPED VERSION HERE: https://www.newsflare.com//video/176071/travel/pilot-captures-terrifying-moment-plane-crash-lands
