A Cessna 172 lost engine power before making a forced landing on Highway 21 east of Edmonton early Wednesday, according to the Transportation Safety Board.
The aircraft came down at approximately 1:15 a.m. in the southbound lanes between Highway 16 and Baseline Road.
A pilot and passenger were on board. Neither was injured, no vehicles were struck, and the aircraft showed no apparent damage.
The aircraft lost engine power
The Transportation Safety Board says the Cessna lost engine power and could no longer maintain flight.
What caused that loss of power has not been determined publicly.
The TSB does not plan to deploy investigators to the scene. The agency says it will continue collecting information and assessing the circumstances surrounding the landing.
How the highway got cleared
RCMP remained on scene as of 6:30 a.m., diverting traffic around the aircraft.
Crews moved the plane east off the highway and pushed it onto the shoulder of a nearby range road.
Highway 21 reopened with minor lane closures by roughly 7:30 a.m., and RCMP said normal traffic had resumed shortly before 8.
What a forced landing involves
When an engine quits, a small aircraft doesn't drop. It becomes a glider, and the pilot has a limited amount of altitude to convert into distance while finding somewhere to put it down.
The Cessna 172 is a high-wing, fixed-gear single that glides reasonably well without power, stalls at low speed and needs a short distance to stop. Those characteristics are why a straight road can work.
Engine failure procedures and off-airport landing site selection are part of the private pilot curriculum, and pilots practise them throughout their training and during recurrent flight reviews.
Doing it at 1:15 a.m. removes most of what makes it manageable. In darkness, a pilot can't see the surface they're aiming for, can't judge obstacles, and can't confirm whether a road has traffic on it until the landing lights reach it.
Highway 21 is a working road
The stretch between Highway 16 and Baseline Road carries commuter traffic between Sherwood Park, Fort Saskatchewan and the industrial corridor east of Edmonton.
It's straight, flat and wide, and at 1:15 a.m. it was quiet.
Strathcona County is home to Cooking Lake Airport, a general aviation field used by private owners and flight training operations. Nobody has said whether the flight was connected to it.
What's still unknown
The cause of the engine failure.
Where the flight originated and where it was headed.
The identities of the pilot and passenger, and the aircraft's registration.
Whether the TSB's assessment leads to any further action.
What the outcome was
An aircraft lost power in the dark, landed on an active highway, hit nothing, and sustained no apparent damage. Two people walked away.
Sources
Transportation Safety Board of Canada
Alberta RCMP
Comments
Conversation