A Chilliwack man and his plane are safe and sound after an emergency landing on the Coquihalla Highway near Merritt on April 22.
According to Const. Tracy Dunsmore, Merritt RCMP received numerous calls on Sunday afternoon informing them a plane had landed on the Highway 5 near Coldwater Road south of Merritt.
“Our members attended and spoke to the pilot of the plane, who was out of the plane and uninjured,” she said.
The pilot had been flying from Chilliwack to Merritt on a leisure trip when his cockpit began to fill with fumes, Dunsmore explained. Worried about power lines and the loss of power in his plane, he located a break in traffic flow and touched down safely in the northbound lanes of Highway 5. He then taxied into the median out of danger from traffic.
“With detachable wings the aircraft was able to be loaded on a standard trailer and [was] removed from the highway with no incident,” Dunsmore reported.
