News
Small plane makes dramatic highway landing
Aug. 1, 2013, Whitehorse, Yukon - The Alaska Highway became a handy airport runway
Tuesday afternoon for a student pilot and his instructor when their plane experienced engine trouble.
August 1, 2013 By The Canadian Press
RCMP Const. Christine Grant said police received a call from the Whitehorse airport watch tower about the malfunctioning plane.
"The pilot blew a cylinder and oil started leaking, so they couldn't maintain altitude,'' she said.
The Cessna 120, a single-engine, two-seater plane, landed safely on the highway in the Ibex Valley west of Whitehorse. Neither the instructor nor the student were hurt.
There were no vehicles around at the time of the landing, Grant said.
It is unclear who was behind the controls during the landing.
"It's not something you see everyday,'' Chief Bob Atkinson of the Ibex Valley volunteer fire department said Wednesday of the highway landing.
Atkinson said two firefighters were called out to the scene to help with traffic control but were turned away when they arrived.
The plane had already been pushed off the road and onto a nearby driveway.
The RCMP have sent a report to the Transportation Safety Board.
An official with the TSB said since no one was injured and the plane was not seriously damaged, it's not something they would have the authority to investigate.
