Plane makes emergency landing on Manitoba highway
Last Updated: Friday, August 8, 2008 | 3:06 PM CT
CBC News
This Northways Aviation Cessna 207 Skywagon made an emergency landing on Highway 8 near St. Andrews Airport, north of Winnipeg, Friday afternoon. (CBC)A pilot who ran into trouble north of Winnipeg Friday afternoon managed to bring his light plane down safely in an emergency landing on Highway 8.
The Northway Aviation Cessna 207 Skywagon took off from St. Andrews Airport with a pilot and three passengers — two women and a baby — aboard.
It was headed to Bloodvein, Man., 200 kilometres north of Winnipeg, when it ran into trouble minutes after takeoff from the small airport 20 kilometres north of Winnipeg.
Kerry Seabrook said he was driving his vehicle north of Winnipeg on Highway 8 when he noticed a plane in trouble, heading towards him.
"I had to pull my truck off into the ditch and even by the time I did that, his wing passed about five feet from my truck," Seabrook said. "I could hear his landing gear touch down right beside me. I had my window open."
Highway 8, which becomes McPhillips Street in Winnipeg, handles heavy traffic to Lake Winnipeg cottages. (CBC)The plane made an emergency landing on Highway 8. No injuries were reported.
The passengers seemed shaken, the CBC's Janice Grant reported from the scene; one said it was the first time she'd been on a light plane. The other hugged her baby close.
The pilot told CBC News he was very relieved that everyone was OK.
Ironically this was the second close call Seabrook has had with a plane. Twenty-five years ago, Seabrook, along with two of his friends, were almost hit by an Air Canada Boeing 767, later nicknamed the Gimli Glider.
The plane's engines conked out well short of Winnipeg, the nearest major airport, and the pilots had to glide the plane onto a former airbase near Gimli. Seabrook and his friends watched as the plane scraped towards them along the runway and stopped just short of running them over.
"This is the second encounter with planes so hopefully there is not a third," Seabrook said. "Apparently I have some magnetism towards planes crashing."
