The Minnesota Department of Transportation has released an astounding video of a single-engine plane emergency landing on a highway outside the Twin Cities.
No one was injured as the Bellanca Viking plane narrowly dodged two cars, and sideswiped an SUV on I-35, said officials. The emergency landing was apparently triggered by engine failure, according to a Facebook post from Ramsey County deputies.
“While this isn’t *quite* what we mean by a ‘multimodal transportation system,’ we’re glad no one was injured,” the state department quipped in a tweet after the feat Wednesday night. The tweet referred to the landing as a “zipper merge.”
Brittany Yurik was the in the vehicle that was struck, according to CBS affiliate WCCO-TV. (Check out the video up top.)
“I saw [the plane] coming at me probably one second before we collided,” Yurik told a TV reporter.
Yurik, whose car was totaled, said she talked to the pilot. “He’s very kind. He was very apologetic. He explained to me what happened. I just can’t believe we’re all okay,” she said. “I think he was feeling the same thing.”
The pilot was identified as 52-year-old Craig Gifford of Minneapolis, a competitive aerobatic pilot, who has represented America in the sport in international contests, USA Today reported.
State troopers responded to the scene after “hearing reports of a plane making an ‘unexpected landing’ on I-35 in Arden Hills,” a suburb of St. Paul, said a statement from the Minnesota Highway Patrol.
“As the plane landed, it crashed into another vehicle that was on I-35W,” the report added. “There were no injuries as a result of this crash.”
The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board will investigate the incident.
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