Airplane makes emergency landing on Highway 14

A small propeller airplane on a training flight out of Pearson Field Airport made an emergency landing at about 4:50 p.m. Saturday on state Highway 14, westbound at Milepost 3 near downtown Vancouver.

Nobody was injured and the airplane was moved onto the right shoulder of the road almost immediately. State police and Clark Country Sheriff’s deputies were on hand within minutes. The right lane of the highway was partially blocked.

“We don’t need any medical assistance. Everybody’s fine,” was heard on the emergency scanner in The Columbian newsroom.

The airplane was a fixed-wing, single-engine Cessna 150L, manufactured in 1973, according to a Federal Aviation Administration aircraft registry. Two males — an instructor and a student — were inside, according to Washington State Patrol Trooper Will Finn.

“They were coming in for a landing at Pearson when there was a mechanical or power failure,” Finn said. “They were already at a low altitude. That forced the instructor to take over the plane and perform an emergency maneuver. One of the wings clipped a highway sign and there was minor damage to the plane and the sign. Nobody was hurt and no other vehicles were involved.”

The registered owner of the airplane is Aero Maintenance Flight Center, which has offered flying lessons out of Pearson Field since 1980. The names of the people in the plane are not yet available.

Aero Maintenance declined to comment.

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