‘Something you don’t see very often’: Plane lands on 407 Highway in York Region, OPP says

Thestar.com
Oct. 28, 2021
Ivy Mak

A small, single-engine plane has landed on the eastbound lanes of the 407 Highway near Woodbine Avenue, OPP say.

“The plane took off from Markham and was headed to Grimsby,” Chris Krepski, spokesperson for the Transportation Safety Board of Canada, told the Star.

In a video posted to Twitter earlier, Ontario Provincial Police Sgt. Kerry Schmidt said the plane took off from the Buttonville airport “just a few moments before it had an engine failure.”

“So, something you don’t see very often,” he said.

“The pilot and the instructor in the airplane did a forced emergency landing here on highway 407 eastbound,” Schmidt said.

The plane was able to successfully and safely land on the wide stretch of highway, said Schmidt, adding that the OPP are speaking to the pilot and instructor about what happened.

“The airplane had been recently maintained. This was its maiden voyage after being inspected,” Schmidt said.

There is no damage to the plane and nobody has been injured.

Buttonville airport is located on 16th Avenue in Markham, a five minute drive from where the plane landed.

Drivers shared videos and photos on Twitter of the plane on the left shoulder of the highway.

Schmidt says the OPP is waiting on officials and mechanics to further assess the plane, and that it will likely be towed or floated back to Buttonville.

According to public registration records, the Piper PA-28-151 model appears to have been registered in December 2020 to the Caribbean Flying Club Inc. based in Toronto.

The Star reached out to the club, who declined to comment on the incident.

The plane appears to be a Piper Warrior aircraft, a single engine piston model that can seat up to four people.

In October 2010, a similar incident occurred on that same stretch of highway near Woodbine Avenue. A fuel issue resulted in a loss of power and forced the pilot to make an emergency landing on the 407.

There is currently one lane open on the eastbound 407 Highway, and according to the OPP, traffic is flowing smoothly.