Piper Comanche lands on Hwy 101 in CA
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Plane lands on Calif Highway
Plane lands on California highway, no major injuries - CNN.com Looks almost like mine (w/o the dent) Better go check (brb)
This happened only a couple miles from my house. There are conflicting media reports (as usual). The only consistent fact seems to be that the pilot lost power when approaching to land. It may have been a tank switching issue or fuel starvation. There was no fire even though the wing was torn off in a subsequent collision with cars travelling on the freeway, so I suspect there was very little or no fuel left onboard. The media reports naturally say the the pilot "lost control" of the aircraft - a theory I doubt since he did manage to land it in one piece. 
There were minor injuries to a few motorists and no injuries to the pilot or passenger on the plane.
It looks like he went for a freeway landing opposing traffic then collided with cars.
I always figured that if I was to try a landing on a freeway (as a last ditch option) that I would go for a landing with the flow of traffic. I have heard conflicting opinions on this matter, but I always figured that in busy traffic any collisions that occured would be lower speed if you were traveling with the flow of traffic.
There were minor injuries to a few motorists and no injuries to the pilot or passenger on the plane. It looks like he went for a freeway landing opposing traffic then collided with cars.
I always figured that if I was to try a landing on a freeway (as a last ditch option) that I would go for a landing with the flow of traffic. I have heard conflicting opinions on this matter, but I always figured that in busy traffic any collisions that occured would be lower speed if you were traveling with the flow of traffic.
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Originally Posted by Piper_Driver
It looks like he went for a freeway landing opposing traffic then collided with cars. 
I always figured that if I was to try a landing on a freeway (as a last ditch option) that I would go for a landing with the flow of traffic.
I always figured that if I was to try a landing on a freeway (as a last ditch option) that I would go for a landing with the flow of traffic.Join Date: Oct 2006
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Piper Comanche lands on Hwy 101 in CA
Apparently this is breaking news, a successful emergency landing and no one hurt.
Plane hit by 3 cars after freeway landing - Life- msnbc.com
Plane hit by 3 cars after freeway landing - Life- msnbc.com
Someone once tried to convince me that if you landed against the flow of traffic that the cars in your way would see you and manuver to avoid. My agument against that is that on a busy freeway they may not be able to avoid you even if they see you. In addition it assumes that all drivers that see you will have the situational awareness to figure out what is happening and take the proper corrective actions. From where I sit that is taking an awful lot on faith. I think I'll stick to physics and look to reduce the differential speed between the potential colliding obects, thereby minimizing the kinetic energy dissipated.
