18-year-old emergency lands small plane on golf course

ST. PETERSBURG (FOX 13) - An 18-year-old pilot, whose plane was having mechanical issues, realized he wouldn't make it to his designated landing spot, so he landed the plane on a St. Pete golf course instead. 

The St. Petersburg Police Department said the 1939 Taylor Craft fixed-wing airplane made an emergency landing on the Lakewood Golf Course in southern St. Petersburg at 1:45 p.m Saturday. The two-seater plane was flying with two other aircraft. The three planes took off from Lakeland and were on their way to Manatee County.

The 18-year-old pilot was told to divert his flight path and land at Albert Whitted Airport in St. Petersburg, but police said the pilot realized he was not going to make it and identified the Lakewood Golf Course as a possible landing sight.

Police said he safely landed the plane on the twelfth fairway of the golf course. While stopping, the left wing on the aircraft clipped a tree. The pilot and his teenage passenger were not injured.

Fuel was not leaking from the plane. The NTSB was responding. The golf course around the plane has been roped-off.

The plane is near the intersection of Cordova Way South and Caesar Way South in the Lakewood Estates subdivision of St. Petersburg.