For the commuters on I-85 Freeway in Cupertino, for the students at a nearby university, for the passerby who noticed a small, gray, single-engine plane drop from the sky and land safely on the freeway. It was no ordinary Monday morning.
The lone pilot in the Cub Crafters CC11 miraculously avoided a collision with another car and crashed onto the right side of the highway just south of Stephen Creek Boulevard just after 7 a.m., according to documents in the California paper. He reportedly took a break on the shoulder of the road. Highway Patrol.
“It was surreal in a way because I had never seen anything like this before,” James Phillis told NBC Bay Area. “I noticed that this plane was lower than any plane I’ve ever seen, and I thought, ‘Wow, what is that guy doing?'” Next thing I know, I’ve lost it. , I woke up just before reaching Stevens Creek Boulevard and realized the plane had landed. ”
Highway Patrol troopers suspect the pilot was forced to make an emergency landing due to a fuel problem. The Federal Aviation Administration said it was investigating the incident.
Pilot Peterson Conway told the news station he was flying from Carmel, where he lives, to Palo Alto when the plane started having mechanical problems. He wasn’t sure if the problem was fuel related.
No one was injured in the emergency landing, but two drivers may have become distracted and crashed after seeing a small gray plane on the side of the highway, CHP said. At least one driver was taken to a local hospital.
Officials at the CHP’s San Jose office posted photos on social media site X showing crews slowly dismantling the plane and loading it onto a tow truck. The emergency landing and subsequent crash closed all but one lane to traffic until 1 p.m.
The Cupertino freeway landing is the latest in a series of accidents involving single-engine planes in California in the past few months.
In August, a 1977 Piper PA-28R-201T crash-landed at a popular golf course in Sacramento and nearly hit a golfer. The pilot suffered a minor cut to his hand. The golfer was not injured.
In September, two people aboard a 1958 Piper PA-24-250 were seriously injured in a crash about two miles from Hawthorne Municipal Airport. The plane crashed on 126th Street near the intersection of Hawthorne Boulevard and El Segundo Boulevard. There were no injuries on the ground and no damage to buildings.
About three weeks later, two people in a 1976 Piper PA-28-235 made an emergency landing on Highway 76 near Canyon Drive in Oceanside. The pilot and passenger, both Oceanside residents, were arrested after authorities said they found a large amount of drugs.
There have been 77 single-engine plane crashes in California so far this year, according to National Transportation Safety Board data. According to federal data from 2014 to 2024, single-engine planes make emergency landings on roads between seven and more than a dozen times a year.
