Since this hasn’t been reported before and it happened on Sunday, February 18, 2018, I’ll report it one month late. Yes I was a month late, but I’ve seen no one else report it while I was away on vacation.
According to Mercury News,
On Sunday, February 18, 2018, a six-seat, single-engine Piper propellor plane suffered an engine failure near E16, my closest airport (KSJC is my closest commercial/international airport). E16 is San Martin Airport (uncontrolled airfield) located about 25 miles south of San Jose, California and about 5 miles south of my hometown of Morgan Hill, California. Ok, I don’t think many of you know what these cities are in California so let’s give you the distance from the popular KSFO. From KSFO to E16 is about 60 miles. The plane was not able to glide to E16, so it had to land on Freeway 101 North near my hometown toward E16. Only the pilot on board and cars moved out of the way to give the pilot a clear path to land. The pilot was not injured nor was anyone harmed.
MY OPINION:
I wasn’t able to see the incident because from the 17th to the 24th of February, I was on vacation in Oregon and in Washington Ski Break Trip. I think that this all could’ve ended much differently, so I think that the pilot had a lot of skill to maneuver around all those cars and safely land the plane on the freeway like it was a runway. Both sides of the freeway were blocked, so the plane could be towed to an exit. If I was at home during that time, I could’ve witnessed the landing since my house is super close to Freeway 101 and the area where the plane landed.
It’s something that doesn’t happen everyday for him I guess. For me, it would be a Boeing 757 making an emergency landing in 1&9. That’s basically something rare for me. I guess that small plane was something rare for him.
Well apparently something did? Looks like a normal traffic jam to me :). Let me ask you something. If you know what happened since you posted this, how was that piper able to land on a freeway without incoming traffic. Was this an anticipated landing and how does “cars moved out of the way” mean any on coming traffic that would not create a crash or collision of some sort to cause an injury… I would like to hear back
Just saying for all of y’all who don’t know what highway 101 is, Highway 101 is a highway connecting San Francisco and Los Angles(with my hometown Fresno being in the middle ^_^) and on weekends and work days is Very,Very BUSYI cannot stress it enough and has frequent delays[I have to deal with this torture of going on 101 every Saturday to visit my mom’s work place to clean;(]