Plane makes unplanned landing on Outaouais highway

A small plane was forced to make an emergencylanding Sunday afternoon on Highway 5 in western Quebec.

The pilot landed at around 4 p.m. on a northbound stretch of the highway near Old Chelsea Road, about 15 kilometres northwest of downtown Ottawa, according to the Sret du Qubec.

The provincial police force said no one was injuredand the plane was not damaged.

Traffic, however, wasdisrupted nearby as emergency crews rushed to the scene.

Oona Woods said she was driving back to Ottawa on Highway 5when she spotted the low-flying plane.

"You know the way you can kind of predict a trajectory and think, 'If that carries on at the same speed and we carry on at the same speed, we're going to be at the same place at the same time?'" she told CBC Radio'sOttawa Morningon Monday.

"So I was like, 'Oh my God,' and floored it, just got underneath, and in the rearview mirror the plane landed, between cars, in the middle of the road and carried along on the highway as if that was a normal thing to do."

Woods, who's married to CBC Ottawa traffic reporterDoug Hempstead, said the pilot seemed "cool as a cucumber" as he set the plane down.

Possible engine failure

Lieut. Patrick Barbary of the Chelsea Fire Department told Radio-Canada the pilot decided to land because he feared his plane's engine was about to fail.

Barbary said that such a malfunction would be extremely rare.

By Sunday evening, the pilot was in the process of gettingthe plane towed away from the highway's shoulder.