A light aircraft operated by the US-based Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has crashed into a Tesla Model X while attempting an emergency landing, injuring one of three special agents on board the plane.
The Cessna aircraft was being used for a training exercise in Houston, Texas, when it experienced technical issues, Business Insider reports.
Speaking to the news site, DEA Houston Division special agent Wendell Campbell said that “the plane had some mechanical difficulties and they had to do an emergency landing” - striking a white Tesla Model X in the process.
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The injured agent was taken to hospital and later discharged, Campbell said.
The driver of the electric SUV, local businessman Oniel Kurup, said in a Facebook post that “no one believed me when I called them to let them know a plane crashed into me”.
“Tesla people thought It was a prank call. Wife laughed at me at first,” he wrote. “Jokes aside, this was a serious matter, I saw my life flash in that minute. A second is all it takes.”
The incident gained the attention of Tesla co-founder Elon Musk, who tweeted: “Wow, glad they’re ok!”
Meanwhile, Fort Bend County Sheriff Troy Nehls told the Houston Chronicle that the aircraft clipped power lines and several other vehicles as well as the Tesla.
“Imagine you’re just driving down Voss Road in Fort Bend County and all the sudden an aircraft strikes your vehicle,” he added. “That would be enough to put me in cardiac arrest. We are very fortunate that this was not much more catastrophic than what it was.”
