Pilot makes emergency landing on highway in Silicon Valley

It was not an ordinary Monday morning for commuters traveling on Highway 85 in Cupertino, nor for the students at a nearby college or the passersby who noticed a small, gray single-engine plane descending from the air and safely landing on the freeway.

The pilot, who was the only person on board the CubCrafters CC11, miraculously avoided hitting any cars before coming to a rest on the right shoulder of the highway after 7 a.m., just south of Steven Creek Boulevard, according to a written statement from the California Highway Patrol.

“It was kind of surreal because I’ve never seen anything like that before,� James Filice told NBC Bay Area. “I noticed this plane was lower than any plane I’ve ever seen before, and I’m like, ‘Wow, what’s that guy doing?’ Next thing I knew, I lost sight of it and then when I got up just about to Stevens Creek Boulevard I noticed the plane had landed.�

Highway patrol officers speculated that fuel problems may have forced the pilot to make an emergency landing. The Federal Aviation Administration said it is investigating the incident.

The pilot, Peterson Conway, told the news station he was flying from Carmel, where he lives, to Palo Alto when he began to have mechanical issues. He was unsure if the issue was fuel related.

Although no one was hurt in the emergency landing, the sight of a small gray plane on the side of the highway may have caused two pickup drivers to become distracted and crash, according to CHP. At least one driver was taken to a local hospital.

Officers with CHP’s San Jose office posted photos on the social media site X, showing crews slowly dismantling the plane and placing it on a tow truck. The emergency landing and the subsequent crash caused all but one lane to remain closed until 1 p.m.

The landing on the highway in Cupertino is the latest in a series of accidents involving single-engine airplanes in California over the past few months.

In August, a 1977 Piper PA-28R-201T crash-landed on a popular golf course in Sacramento, nearly hitting a golfer. The pilot suffered a minor cut to his hand. The golfer was not hurt.

In September, two people aboard a 1958 Piper PA-24-250 were seriously injured after crashing about two miles from the Hawthorne Municipal Airport. The plane crashed on 126 Street, near the intersection of Hawthorne and El Segundo boulevards. No one on the ground was injured, and no buildings were damaged.

About three weeks later, two people aboard a 1976 Piper PA-28-235 made an emergency landing on Highway 76 near Canyon Drive in Oceanside. The pilot and passenger, both residents of Oceanside, were arrested after authorities said they discovered large amount of drugs.

So far, there have been 77 accidents this year involving single-engine planes in California, according to data from the National Transportation Safety Board. Federal data from 2014 to 2024 show that single-engine planes make emergency landings on roadways seven to more than a dozen times a year.