Small plane makes emergency landing on highway near Confederation Bridge

Rod Wood has seen "some crazy things" after 33 years of driving a truck. But he admits he was taken aback when he saw a plane trying to land on Route 16 nearthe Confederation Bridge on Monday afternoon.

At first, the small plane from the Moncton Flight Collegejust looked like a "white line," said Wood, who had just come off the bridge and was hauling a flammable product westbound at around 12:30p.m.

"I didn't really know what it was because it was quite a ways in the distance and it was kind of moving up and down," he said.

But as it headed straight for him, he realized, "Holy crap, you know,there's a plane going to land on the highway."

Even the 911 operator couldn't believe it when he called, he said. "She was just kind of incredulous, like, 'What?' It's not something you hear every day, I guess."

Thestudent pilot, a man in his 20s, who was alone, was forced to makean emergency landing after he encountered a "mechanical issue" near Bayfield, saidSackville RCMP Sgt.Paul Gagn.

No one was injured and the two-seater plane a Diamond DA20-C1 sustained minor damage, he said.

Emergency crews were called to the scene at around 12:45 p.m.

Wood said it's a busy stretch of the two-lane, undivided highway, especially on Mondayswhen there's a lot of truck traffic.

'He was extremely calm and looked confident'

He watchedthe planebob over some vehicles ahead of him that didn't pull over. The pilot needed to land in the middle of thehighway to avoid tearing off the plane's wings on ahydro poleor sign, he said.

"The first thing that comes into your mind eh, it's just like, you see this stuff on TV, you never expect something like this to actually happen," he said.

Once Wood and a couple of other truck drivers made way though, the pilot immediately "set it down, just as nice as anything," and "got out of the cockpit, thumbs up. Everything was OK."

"He did a good job. I was impressed," said Wood. "He was extremely calm and looked confident."

The planeblocked one lane of traffic until about 2:15 p.m. when crews managed to roll it into a nearby parking lot, RCMP said.

By 3 p.m., the wings were removed, it was loaded on a trailer and taken away, said Wood.

Transport Canada was notified.