Patrick Humphries, 18, a trainee pilot with the Australian Airforce was practising aerobatics when the engine stalled forcing him down on one of the state's busiest highways just after 10am.
Pilot tells: "I heard the engine fail, my heart sank"
Gallery: Easter Miracle

Mr Humphries escaped uninjured despite his plane losing a wing and landing gear when the single-engined aircraft clipped a tree as he made an emergency landing flying south with the traffic just beyond Cleary's Gates and before the clover-leaf overpass.

ST. LOUIS, March 8, 2010 -- The Boeing Company [NYSE: BA] has begun to build Phantom Eye -- its first unmanned, liquid-hydrogen powered, high altitude long endurance (HALE) demonstrator aircraft.

'The essence of Phantom Eye is its propulsion system,' said Darryl Davis, Boeing Phantom Works president. 'After five years of technology development, we are now deploying rapid prototyping to bring together an unmanned aerial vehicle [UAV] with a breakthrough liquid-hydrogen propulsion system that will be ready to fly early next year.'

Phantom Eye's entire propulsion system -- including the engine, turbo chargers and engine control system -- successfully completed an 80-hour test in an altitude chamber on March 1, clearing the way for the propulsion system and UAV to be assembled.

The twin-engine Phantom Eye demonstrator will have a 150-foot wingspan and be capable of flying for more than four days at altitudes up to 65,000 feet while carrying a payload of up to 450 pounds. Phantom Eye is designed to maintain a persistent presence in the stratosphere over a specific area, while performing missions that could include intelligence, reconnaissance, surveillance and communication. Boeing also is developing a larger HALE that will stay aloft for more than 10 days and carry payloads of more than 2,000 pounds, and building "Phantom Ray," a fighter-sized UAV that will be a flying test bed for advanced technologies.