It was no ordinary Monday morning for commuters on Highway 85 in Cupertino, and for nearby college students or passersby who saw a small, gray single-engine plane take off from the air and land safely on the freeway.
The pilot, who was the sole occupant of the CubCrafters CC11, miraculously avoided hitting any vehicles before coming to rest on the right shoulder of the highway just after 7 a.m., south of Steven Creek Boulevard, according to a written statement from California. Highway Patrol.
“It was kind of surreal because I’ve never seen anything like that before,” James Filice told NBC Bay Area. “I saw that this plane was lower than any plane I’ve ever seen before, and I said, ‘Wow, what is that person doing?’ The next thing I knew, I didn’t see it and when I got up to get to Stevens Creek Boulevard I saw that the plane had arrived.”
The police monitoring the road predict that it is possible that the fuel problems forced the pilot to arrive at the emergency stop. The Federal Aviation Administration said it is investigating the incident.
The pilot, Peterson Conway, told the news station that he was flying from Carmel, where he lives, to Palo Alto when he began experiencing mechanical problems. He was not sure if the issue was fuel related.
Although no one was injured during the emergency landing, the sight of a small gray plane on the side of the highway may have caused two pickup truck drivers to become distracted and crash, according to the CHP. At least one driver was taken to a local hospital.
Police from the CHP office in San Jose posted photos on social media X, showing workers slowly dismantling the plane and placing it on a tow truck. The emergency landing and subsequent crash caused the entire lane to be closed until 1 p.m
The crash on a highway in Cupertino is the latest in a series of accidents involving single-engine planes in California over the past few months.
In August, a 1977 Piper PA-28R-201T crashed on a popular golf course in Sacramento, nearly hitting a golf course. The pilot was slightly injured in the hand. The golfer was not injured.
In September, two people aboard a 1958 Piper PA-24-250 were seriously injured after it crashed about two miles from the Hawthorne Municipal Airport. The plane crashed on 126 Street, near the intersection of Hawthorne and El Segundo streets. No one on the ground was injured, and no structures were damaged.
About three weeks later, two people in a 1976 Piper PA-28-235 arrived at an emergency on Highway 76 near Canyon Drive in Oceanside. The pilot and passenger, who both live in Oceanside, were arrested after authorities said they found a large amount of drugs.
So far this year, there have been 77 accidents involving single-engine aircraft in California, according to data from the National Transportation Safety Board. Federal data from 2014 to 2024 shows that single-engine aircraft make emergency roadway crashes seven to more than a dozen times a year.
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