NASA is crashing a Cessna 172—on purpose—in order to test emergency locator transmitters.
On Wednesday at 1 p.m. ET, NASA will drop a vintage 1974 aircraft, tail down, from a height of 100 feet at the Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. The crash test is intended to "simulate a severe but survivable plane accident," according to a NASA press release, and will help researchers learn more about emergency locators.