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Plane Lands on Washington State Road, Stops at Red Light

Drivers on a usually busy stretch of Pacific Avenue South, aka State Route 7, were treated to an awesome yet slightly terrifying sight: a small plane landed on it, in the middle of traffic.
Small plane casually stops at red light after emergency landing on state road 11 photos
Photo: komonews.com
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The incident could have had a different ending if Washington State Trooper Clint Thompson hadn’t been passing by. He says he saw the plane heading for the road, so he made a U-turn and followed it with the lights on, making sure traffic was blocked around it so it could land safely without bumping into cars.

Another lucky coincidence is that pilot David Acklam was able to stop the single-prop KR2 plane right before a busy intersection, as KOMO News notes. In fact, he actually stopped it at the red light.

Acklam says a fuel system malfunction caused the plane to stall, so he began looking for safe locations to land. At that moment, Route 7 was relatively empty, so he decided to give it a try.

“I was flying to work and my engine quit and made a forced landing on Pac. Ave.,” he says. “I would like to thank the trooper for what he did probably saved me from serious injury or death and somebody else from getting in a car crash with the plane. Thanks to the State Patrol... and it's a good day to be alive.”

No one was injured in the emergency landing, and neither the plane nor passing vehicles took any damage. The trooper and Acklam were able to push the plane off the road by themselves, and Acklam then had it towed back home, after taking it apart.

“[The pilot] could see the straight stretch of roadway, and he knew he had to make an emergency landing, and he was able to do so safely,” Johnna Batiste of the Washington State Patrol says for the same media outlet. “It was a series of very lucky events. There happened to be a break in traffic and the plane did not come into contact with any vehicles or pedestrians.”


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About the author: Elena Gorgan
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Elena has been writing for a living since 2006 and, as a journalist, she has put her double major in English and Spanish to good use. She covers automotive and mobility topics like cars and bicycles, and she always knows the shows worth watching on Netflix and friends.
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