by Mike Ross
Friday, June 4, 2010
ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- The pilot of a small plane is safe Friday after an emergency landing on the Glenn Highway during rush-hour traffic.
Bill Toney had engine trouble and was forced to set his Cessna 180 down in the southbound lanes of the Glenn at the Mirror Lake exit just before 5 p.m.
Toney said something blew a big hole in the crankcase of the engine, at which point he had to find an open spot in the traffic to make his landing.
"There was a pretty nice break in the traffic there, there was a big truck and I just kind of came in behind this big truck -- there was probably several hundred yards of clearance on the highway, I landed on the highway, so it really wasn't much of a problem," Toney said. "The only problem really was, as you can see, the windscreen is covered with oil, so I had a little trouble seeing. But I got the airplane down in one piece, I'm not hurt and the airplane's not hurt, and I guess that's all that's important."
