2 truckers help airplane pilot make emergency landing

Authorities check the single-engine plane that, with the help of a pair of truckers, made an emergency landing on an Illinois interstate. (Daily Leader Photograph)

The Trucker News Services

7/3/2008

LIVINGSTON COUNTY, ILL. — Police said a 1980 Beechcraft A36 Bonanza single-propeller plane, assisted by two 18-wheelers, made an emergency landing on Interstate 55 southbound, approximately three miles south of Dwight Tuesday evening.

According to an article in the Daily Leader at Pontiac, Ill., none of the three men aboard the aircraft was injured.

Police said the pilot of the plane was assisted in the landing by two tractor-trailer drivers who blocked traffic behind the aircraft as it made the landing.

The plane made the surprise landing in Livingston County at 5:52 p.m., Tuesday.

The landing didn’t occur at Pontiac Municipal Airport as planned, but rather on Interstate 55, southbound at milepost 214 1/2 near Dwight.

According to reports from District 6 State Police, the crew on board the plane was flying from Detroit, Mich., to Moline and had planned on landing at Pontiac Municipal Airport to refuel.

Police said "during its approach to Pontiac Airport the aircraft experienced engine problems."

The pilot Larry D. Kerr, 46, Moline, then made an emergency landing on I-55, according to state troopers. Also on the plane were flight instructor, Robert M. Jones, 66, of Iowa, no hometown listed, and a passenger, Robert S. Deckerd, 46, also of Moline.

"The aircraft sustained minor damage to the right wing when the wing struck a mile delineator post along the shoulder of the interstate," police said.

The aircraft ended up being towed off I-55 to the airport, according to police. This was accomplished later in the evening.

Livingston County Sheriff's Police Chief Ken White was one of the first police officers on the scene.

"I just happened to be in the area and heard the transmissions about what had occurred. This could have been a real tragedy. The pilot maintained his composure and did a great job in landing this plane," said White. "There is not really a much better place to land a plane that is in serious trouble than on a highway like an interstate.

"This pilot told me that when they first realized there was trouble on the plane they contacted O'Hare Airport. They were given 'vector' status by O'Hare until they could be picked up by radar," said White.

The sheriff's police officer said the men had told him that even before the trouble occurred they had planned on making a landing at Pontiac Airport.

"These men were also very fortunate that when the plane's problems first started happening a few miles back further north on the highway they were noticed by some observant semi drivers. The drivers began following the plane which was obviously making a descent and provided a rolling road block which held traffic back as the plane got ready to land on the roadway," said White.