Two people on board a rented small plane that safely landed on the Parks Highway near Willow after an engine failure Tuesday evening were unharmed, Alaska State Troopers say.
According to a Wednesday AST dispatch, Talkeetna troopers were informed just before 6:40 p.m. that a small plane had landed on the highway.
“We found out about it initially because there was a driver who called us and said there was a plane in front of ‘em,” said AST spokesperson Megan Peters.
When troopers found the undamaged Cessna 152 in a pullout at Mile 94.5 of the Parks, neither the pilot, 39-year-old Chienwen Liu of Anchorage, nor 37-year-old passenger Fang H. Lin of Bakersfield, Calif. reported any injuries.
“Liu reported that he had flown from Anchorage to Talkeetna earlier in the afternoon and that approximately 10 minutes after leaving Talkeetna airport for the return trip to Anchorage, the airplane engine stopped,” troopers wrote. “Liu said that he attempted to restart the engine but that it would not restart so he elected to land the airplane on the highway.”
Peters says troopers drove Liu and Lin to a nearby gas station to begin making arrangements for the recovery of the Cessna. She says the owners would have to acquire special permits from the state Department of Transportation if they wished to fly the aircraft off the highway.
“There would be a potential for it if they got the proper permits, but I don’t see it happening -- especially on the Parks,” Peters said.
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