Small plane makes emergency landing along I-985 in Gwinnett County
Plane crashes into semi making emergency landing along I-985
The two people aboard the fixed-wind, single engine plane that made an emergency landing along Interstate 985 in Gwinnett County during rush-hour traffic were not hurt. The plane struck a semi as it was coming in, but other than that, it landed in one piece.
GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. - A small plane was forced to make an emergency landing on Interstate 985 Tuesday afternoon, the Gwinnett County Fire Department says.
Firefighters says they arrived at the scene around 4:25 p.m. to the scene just north of the Interstate 85 split. Officials quickly found the plane and discovered it had made contact with a semi-trailer.
Firefighters ran hoses as a precaution, but there was no fire.
SKYFOX 5 flew over the scene around 4:45 p.m. and spotted a single-engine fixed-wing plane on the ground with its nose towards the pavement.
Firefighters say there were no injuries and the two people on board were able to get themselves out of the plane before emergency crews arrived. Their names have not been released.
A HAZMAT crew was at the scene who off-loaded about 10 gallons of fuel from the aircraft before it could be moved from the highway.
The Georgia State Patrol was also on the scene assisting with traffic.
All lanes were initially blocked and traffic was backed up for miles.
The highway was closed for about an hour and a half when officials began to let vehicles go around using the emergency shoulder.
The plane was eventually towed to a nearby shopping center parking lot by a local wrecker service.
The highway was reopened shortly after 6 p.m.
An image provided by flightaware.com shows the path a plane took before making an emergency landing along I-985 in Gwinnett County on Jan. 24, 2023.
According to flightaware.com, the plane took off from the Gwinnett County airport around 3:23 p.m., flew over Lake Lanier, did several circles before heading back towards the airport. The radar lost the plane around 4:11 p.m.
It is not clear what forced the Piper PA-28-140 to make the emergency landing on the busy interstate.
The FAA and NTSB will be investigating the incident.