Copperfield's Emergency Landing: Plane Made 'Frightening' Noise in Mid-Air (VIDEO)
Copperfield's emergency landing scared the magician, as the small private plane he was flying in made a "frightening" on the way from Las Vegas to New York. The illusionist's plane had to make an unscheduled landing in Peoria, Ill. after having problems mid-air at about 1:45 a.m. Monday.
David Copperfield was 37,000 feet in the air when the "crackling" sound was heard from the plane. The emergency landing took place at Peoria International Airport, but the magician was sure to record the sound before the plane's quick spiral to the ground.
"Emergency landing. Everyone is ok," he wrote in a series of tweets. "Emergency landing in Peoria, Illinois. So scary. . . Happy to be on the ground and safe."
Get Our Latest News for FREE
Copperfield was heading to New York for the "Today" show when the incident occurred. Instead of abandoning the show and fans, however, he appeared on the program via Skype, and was not hesitant to discuss the ordeal.
"I heard this [crackling] sound and it wouldn't stop," the illusionist told Matt Lauer in the interview. "I felt kind of freaked out and they told us we have to go back for our descent. We were going in a spiral with G force, and we finally got to the ground … and it turned out there was snow all around."
Despite the magician's worries about the plane's problems, the Peoria airport claims there was no emergency landing. Technically, any emergency landing requires priority landing clearance, Air National Guard notification, and fire trucks, Gene Olson, the director of the airport, told The Peoria Journal-Star.
The news of Copperfield's incident comes after two major plane crashes earlier this week. Two adults and two children died in a plane crash near northern New Mexico Sunday. On Monday, a 15-year-old girl was the sole survivor of a jet crash in the French Alps.
