Plane uses Trans-Canada Highway in Swift Current for landing

By David Zammit

Emergency crews in Swift Current received an unorthodox phone call Tuesday night which concluded with a successful plane landing on the Trans-Canada Highway.

The call came into the Swift Current Fire Department at 1:24 a.m. as a Cessna Skylane with a lone occupant needed to make an emergency landing.

According to Swift Current Fire Chief Ryan Hunter, the aircraft ran into electrical issues and nobody was hurt in the incident.

“When it’s an emergency, you think it’s going to be not a successful landing and then there is going to be fuel (everywhere) and potentially hitting a vehicle,” he said. “So when the guys were en route, I’m sure there were a few different scenarios going through their minds.

“(We’re) very lucky that it wasn’t a busy roadway at that time of night because it could have been a lot larger incident.”

The plane was going to land at the Swift Current Airport but came to a rest on the Trans-Canada Highway just in front of the Standard Nissan dealership.

“When our crews arrived, the pilot was standing outside of the plane,” Hunter said.

Fire crews along with the pilot then pushed the airplane off the road and into the parking lot of Standard Nissan, where the plane remained as of 8:30 a.m.

Hunter noted this isn’t the first time his team has received a call about an emergency landing for an airplane.

“We’ve had a few small planes where they’ve had to land in a field or in a pasture but not usually on the highway,” he said.