Military Pilot Makes Near-Fatal Landing

A crowd of about 1,000 had gathered to watch the final landing of the Transall C-160 military plane as it approached the Ballenstedt airfield in Saxony-Anhalt, central Germany On December 26, 2012. All appeared to be going smoothly until the pilot suddenly reported that he could not see the start of the runway from his cockpit - and came down on a side road where many of the spotters were standing. As some fled screaming in terror, the braver or more foolhardy stood their ground keeping their cameras trained on the 31-ton aircraft to catch every second of the action.