Plane lands on Ga. 316 after engine dies

Small plane painted like German World War II fighter.

A small airplane landed on Ga. 316 in Gwinnett County on Monday afternoon, police said.

The plane is registered to a Buford man, FAA records show. It appears to be designed to look like a Messerschmitt BF 109, a plane used by Nazi Germany in World War II. The design includes a small swastika on the plane’s tail.

The aircraft landed safely just before 1 p.m. and there were no injuries reported, according to Gwinnett County police. The plane landed on the highway near Harbins Road, the same intersection where an accident involving a milk truck spill snarled traffic earlier this month.

Fred Meyer, who was piloting the plane, was the only person on board. He does not own the aircraft but built the engine and helps take care of the maintenance, he told Channel 2 Action News.

“The engine just quit, it just died,” Meyer told Channel 2. “You just sort of fall back on your training at that point in time. You don’t think of the circumstances, you just think of your training.”

The landing took place about three miles east of the Gwinnett County Airport at 12:45 p.m. After the landing near Dacula, the plane was pulled into the median.

The plane was described by a Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman as a “Sonex experimental, amateur-built aircraft.” Sonex is a company that sells kits that allow people to build their own airplanes.

Meyer told Channel 2 the German warplane design was “just for fun.”

“A lot of people like to paint these planes up like old war birds,” Meyer said.

GWINNETT COUNTY POLICE DEPARTMENT A small plane landed safely on Ga. 316 near Dacula on Monday. The plane appears to be designed to look like a Messerschmitt BF 109, a plane used by Nazi Germany in World War II.