RCMP were quickly on the scene after a small plane landed in a sports field in Port Coquitlam Monday. (Submitted by Allan Reyes)

A Vancouver-area pilot says fuel problems forced him to make an emergency landing with his single-engine plane on a Port Coquitlam soccer field Tuesday afternoon.

Pilot Dave Deno was flying his two-seater Cessna 150 from Pitt Meadows to Squamish when he suspects the fuel line became clogged with sediment, forcing him to start looking for a site to make an emergency landing.

He soon spotted a soccer field at Gates Park in Port Coquitlam, near the intersection of Welcher Avenue and Reeve Street, and started preparing for the emergency landing, just like he'd learned while training to be a pilot.

'Wow, I'm actually hitting a tree.'—Pilot Dave Deno

"They teach you to practise for an engine failure. And the field is the top of the list of choices to go to, if there's no people on it," he said.

There was a girl standing on the field as he lined up his approach, but she moved out of the way before the plane touched down, Deno said.

But then he ran into other problems when one of wings of the plane clipped the tops of some trees on the edge of the field during his final approach.

"For a second there, it was like, 'Wow, I'm actually hitting a tree,' but it tweaked the plane a little bit and it was not as nearly as bad as I thought it would be catching a branch. Never want to do that, but of course it's always in the back of your mind if you're anywhere near trees," said Deno.

Deno managed to touch down safely on the field and no one was injured in the incident.