Plane Make an Emergency Landing in the Middle of an Active Interstate. A 25-year-old flight instructor safely landed a small plane on Interstate 8 in El Cajon late Friday morning.
Piloted by a 36-year-old flight student and a 25-year-old instructor, the Piper aircraft suffered an engine failure mid-flight. Now, the student pretty quickly relinquished control of the craft to the instructor, who managed to safely put this bad boy down on the ground with what looks like not even a scratch for anyone—or any car—involved.
No one was injured in the emergency landing, which one California Highway Patrol official called “nothing short of a miracle.”
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A student-pilot had been preparing to land at nearby Gillespie Field when the engine failed, according to CHP.
The instructor took control of the aircraft and managed to land the plane safely, avoiding homes, power lines and traffic as he touched down on the busy highway, originally blocking two lanes of the freeway before guiding the plane to the Mollison Avenue off-ramp for I-8 West, which was still blocked as of 4 p.m.
The site of the landing was less than two miles from Gillespie Field. Officials said that mechanics may have to be called to remove the plane’s wings, because the aircraft was too wide to tow to the airfield.
The plane’s tail number, N8125Y, matched a 1979 Piper PA-28. The fixed-wing, single-engine plane with four seats and one engine is registered to a corporation called So Cal Leasing LLC, based in El Cajon.
The Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board were investigating what led up to the engine failure.
