AGOURA HILLS, Calif. (NewsNation Now) — A small airplane made an emergency landing on a freeway in the Agoura Hills, California area Monday, creating a major backup on the freeway.
The single-engine plane landed on the 101 Freeway around 7 p.m., a Los Angeles County Fire Department spokesperson said. It’s about 14 miles inland from Malibu. NewsNation affiliate KTLA reported that the original mayday call was made to the Los Angeles Police Department.
“The only thing we got was that the pilot was coming down low and fast, so we were able to get officers to slow down traffic,” Officer Craig Martin of the California Highway Patrol said.
The plane landed safely and no injuries were reported.
A student and an instructor pilot were on board, according to CHP. The instructor was able to take over from the training pilot and land the plane safely, Martin said.
Several people stopped to see what was causing the hold up and captured video of the plane landing while they waiting in their vehicles.
Tristan Nelson, 11, was in the car when he saw the small plane coming down.
“The plane started to come down and I thought it was going to crash,” he said. “But then it stopped and it landed pretty smoothly.
The landing prompted the closure of the southbound 101 Freeway at the Reyes Adobe off-ramp, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. Authorities were eventually able to push the plane off of the freeway.
“I just popped over to see what was going on and by the time I got here, the plane was being pushed up off-ramp,” said Deborah Klein Lopez, mayor pro tem of Agoura Hills. “They literally just pushed it right up the off-ramp with their might. Thankfully everyone was OK.”
It was not yet clear what prompted the emergency landing. The Federal Aviation Administration will conduct an investigation, according to the CHP/
NewsNation affiliate KTLA contributed to this report.