It takes a pretty specific set of circumstances for planes and cars to collide, the end result of which is usually disaster. So it’s remarkable to see pictures and video of a car that had its roof sliced open like a tin can by a low-flying crop duster, which was then able to land safely with a damaged propeller after its brush with fate.
How exactly this happened is unclear. On the Instagram post where the photos were first shared, commenters say the accident occurred on a farm in Brazil when the pilot of the Embraer EMB 202 Ipanema wanted to prank his friends in the car with a super-low pass. No one was reportedly injured. This is supposedly backed up by the initial video in which people can be heard discussing the damage in Portuguese—be sure to watch the whole thing to see how the propeller blades cut all the way through the roof and into the vehicle’s cabin.
We’ve been unable to independently confirm the story, though it would explain why the car appears to have been struck dead-on from behind. Were this a case of the plane flying too low over a field and accidentally hitting a vehicle on a cut-through access road, the impact would be from the side. Imagine being in the car, minding your own business, when suddenly your world explodes with noise and a death blade slices down through your roof. Scary stuff.
Regardless, the evidence speaks for itself. In addition to those neat gashes from the prop blades, there’s a long smudge of yellow paint on the edge of the roof that appears to have come from the plane’s fixed landing gear support as it passed overhead, an inch or two from catastrophe. Both the approach path and angle of attack had to be just right to get this close to killing everyone involved without actually doing so. The odds are pretty incredible, actually.
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