“The Minnesota Department of Transportation has released an astounding video of a single-engine plane emergency landing on a highway outside the Twin Cities. No one was injured as the Bellanca Viking plane narrowly dodged two cars, and sideswiped an SUV on I-35, said officials. The emergency landing was apparently triggered by engine failure, according to a Facebook post from Ramsey County deputies. “While this isn’t *quite* what we mean by a ‘multimodal transportation system,’ we’re glad no one was injured,” the state department quipped in a tweet after the feat Wednesday night. The tweet referred to the landing as a “zipper merge.” ICYMI: A plane landed on 35W last night. (Yes, really!) While this isn’t *quite* what we mean by a \”multimodal transportation system,\” we’re glad no one was injured and are impressed by the pilot’s effort to #zippermerge from above! pic.twitter.com/imPdiQ1wMX— Minnesota Department of Transportation (@MnDOT) December 3, 2020 Really impressive. It seems now the only reason he crashed at all was bc he was trying to avoid crashing into the car he was overtaking ahead. Not enough room in the passing lane for a plane. Really impressive landing. @kare11— 𝙲𝚑𝚛𝚒𝚜 𝙾𝚕𝚒𝚟𝚎 (@ChrisEOlive) December 3, 2020 Brittany Yurik was the in the vehicle that was struck, according to CBS affiliate WCCO-TV. (Check out the video up top.) “I saw the plane] coming at me probably one second before we collided,” Yurik told a TV reporter. Yurik, whose car was totaled, said she talked to the pilot. “He’s very kind. He was very apologetic. He explained to me what happened. I just can’t believe we’re all okay,” she said. “I think he was feeling the same thing.” The pilot was identified as 52-year-old Craig Gifford of Minneapolis, a competitive aerobatic pilot, who has represented America in the sport in international contests, USA Today reported. (function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = ‘https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v3.2’; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs); }(document, ‘script’, ‘facebook-jssdk’)); State troopers responded to the scene after “hearing reports of a plane making an ‘unexpected landing’ on I-35 in Arden Hills,” a suburb of St. Paul, said a statement from the Minnesota Highway Patrol. “As the plane landed, it crashed into another vehicle that was on I-35W,” the report added. “There were no injuries as a result of this crash.” The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board will investigate the incident.
