Small plane makes emergency landing on New York expressway

New York: A small plane made an emergency landing on the Major Deegan Expressway in the Bronx on Saturday afternoon, fire officials said.

The plane landed in the northbound lane of the expressway around 3:20 p.m., fire officials said. There was no fire and no fuel spilled.

Three passengers - a male pilot and two women - were able to leave the plane, police said. One of the women had a minor head injury.

The passengers were taken to St. Barnabas Hospital with injuries that were not life threatening, officials said.

The plane departed from Danbury, Conn., on a tour around the Statue of Liberty, according to New York's Office of Emergency Management. On the way back to Danbury, the plane had an emergency on board.

The pilot was able to land on the usually heavily trafficked expressway because a crew of city workers repairing potholes on the roadway had largely blocked off much of the traffic, creating a stretch of cleared lanes north of it, said workers at the scene.

The workers said the plane appeared to have engine trouble and brushed treetops before landing.

No cars on the expressway were damaged during the landing, officials said.

There were major delays on the expressway in the afternoon and evening as officials investigated the emergency landing. Officials said they had to remove the fuel from the plane before they could move it from the scene.

The plane is a 1966 Piper PA-28, a small fixed-wing aircraft with a single engine, according to Federal Aviation Administration records. It is registered to Michael Schwartz in South Salem, N.Y.

Bert Troche, 58, a highway repair worker for the city's Transportation Department, said he was on "pothole patrol" patching holes in the expressway caused by the snowfall Friday.

Troche said the crew was using two large trucks to protect themselves from the approaching traffic while repairing the surface of the traffic lanes.

"We took out the right and center lane, so the traffic was running slow, and then that gave him enough time to come down because he was coming down like this, and his motor went dead and he had to find a place to land," he said.

Miguel Lopez, a supervisor for the repair crew, said the workers loaded the passengers into his truck to wait for emergency officials.

"I told them to get in the truck so they could stay warm and collect their thoughts," Lopez said.

Troche said the passengers appeared happy to have survived without major injuries.
"It was scary, but thank God nobody got hurt," he said.