DETROIT – Former Local 4 anchorman Mort Crim had a mid-air scare Monday afternoon when the engine on the plane he was flying suddenly stopped during over the coast of Florida.
---Mort Crim has been flying for 60 years
Crim was flying with his wife after visiting their grandchildren in Vero Beach, about 200 miles from their home in Jacksonville.
"It gets very quiet in a single engine plane when the engine stops"
SLIDESHOW: Mort Crim has mid-air scare in private plane
"It gets very quiet in a single engine plane when the engine stops. Quiet enough that I could hear Renee's heart pounding," joked Crim.
He glided the plane six miles back to Melbourne Florida airport and made what his wife described as the best landing of his career.
Mort, a pilot for sixty years, said he has never had a single engine plane quit on him, but he was ready for it.
"I knew that I had only one shot at a landing, but over the years I have practiced hundreds of times for just such an emergency," he said.
--Mort Crim making his coast-to-coast trip in his private plane
Crim updates his former co-anchor Carmen Harlan live on Local 4
Crim talked like with Local 4's Carmen Harlan from Florida on Tuesday during the 5 p.m. newscast.
Harlan asked Crim how he and his wife were doing since their scare.
"We're doing great, we're doing fine," Crim said.
Crim said he started to know he was in trouble when he noticed the engine running rough.
"I went through all the procedures, tried switching fuel tanks, tried turning on the auxiliary fuel pump, and everything I could think of to do, that I'd been trained to do," he said.
Eventually, Crim said, he knew the only thing left to do land early.
"As we got closer to the ground at about 2,000 feet, the engine stopped," Crim said. "It was no longer a precautionary landing, it was an emergency landing."
Crim said he was focused on getting the plane down safely and his wife was calm.
"If you walk away from it, it's a good landing. If you can use the plane again, it's a great landing," Crim said. "I was shooting for a great landing."
--Mort Crim and Carmen Harlan on the anchor desk in the mid 1980s
Last fall we followed Mort Crim as he made a coast-to-coast air trip
Watch: Mort Crim Makes Coast-To-Coast Air Trip