Plane makes ‘miracle’ emergency landing on California motorway at night amid traffic

The pilot of a small plane that made a night time emergency landing on a southern California motorway said as soon as the engine died he knew he’ would never make it to a nearby airport.

“I saw an opening on the highway and I went for it right away,” Israel Slod said after safely guiding the single-engine Beech G33 onto State Route 55 in Costa Mesa on Sunday night.

Fire Captain Chris Coates said it was a “complete miracle” that traffic was light and the plane did not hit any cars or cause a collision. No injuries were reported. Fire officials described Slod as an experienced pilot.

Passenger Daniel Gross said he and Slod were over the ocean flying from San Diego to John Wayne Airport in Orange County when the engine suddenly stopped.

“I didn’t think we were going to die, but I had no idea where we were going to end up,” said Gross. “We had about a minute and a half from when we lost power to when we were on the ground. It happened really quickly. You don’t think about that when you’re falling from the sky.”