Shuts Down Traffic, But Saves Himself And Airplane

It's not often enough we get to report on an emergency landing that turns out like this. You might say any landing you walk away from is a passable one... but that doesn't give proper credit to the efforts of the pilot who made an off-airport emergency landing in the Colorado Rockies Wednesday.

KUSA-9 reports the unidentified pilot was flying from Denver International Airport to Meeker, CO  (KEEO) Wednesday afternoon, when he reported an engine out in the vicinity of Eagle, CO at around 1315 MDT.

The pilot initially tried to make Eagle County Regional (KEGE)... but that plan fell through when the Cessna 340's second engine quit on approach.

Fortunately, a solution presented itself: Interstate 70, which cuts a winding path through the Rocky Mountains... and parallels the runway at EGE. The pilot put the plane down on the highway, on its landing gear, and rolled to an uneventful stop.

The landing did shut traffic down on I-70 for about 90 minutes, according to local authorities... but the pilot walked away without a scratch, and near as we call tell, the C-340 lived to fly another day, as well.

All in all, not a bad day's work!

(ANN thanks the Eagle County Sheriff's Department for its photos of the scene.)

FMI: www.faa.gov