A single-engine aircraft was forced to perform an emergency landing on a Bay Area highway during rush hour when it ran out of fuel.
The incident occurred on November 4, 2024, just after 07:00 local time. According to the California Highway Patrol, the plane, a CubCrafters CC11-160, landed on southbound Highway 85.
The pilot was the only passenger and the plane managed to land without hitting any vehicles or injuring anyone.
The aircraft’s pilot, identified as Peterson Conway, told news outlet ABC7 that he ran out of fuel and lost the engine mid-flight. Conway then made a mayday call into Palo Alto Airport (PAO), where he was headed to.
According to Conway, before he departed from Carmel-by-the-Sea in California, he had asked employees at Monterey Regional Airport (MRY) to fill the aircraft fuel before he took off, but there seemed to have been a miscommunication.
“I left my farm in Carmel at 6 a.m. this morning, called the airport and asked them to top me off, we don’t know what happened, if that did happen or it didn’t but clearly I had an engine out,” Conway told ABC7.
Conway said that he regularly commutes by air to travel between his farms in Palo Alto and Carmel.
Crews and police officers eventually worked on dismantling the aircraft’s wings, and placed it on a flatbed truck where it was driven to Palo Alto Airport.
By 13:20 local time, all highway lanes were once again open to vehicles.