SAN DIEGO — A small airplane joined the usually heavy traffic on Interstate 15 in San Diego late Monday afternoon when it made an emergency landing along the roadway's median.
The San Diego Fire-Rescue Department fielded reports of a plane on the freeway at Balboa Avenue at 4:45 p.m., department spokesperson Candace Hadley said by email.
"When crews arrived, they found that the plane had landed safely with no injuries," she said.
The California Highway Patrol's Border Division added that no motorists were harmed, either.
"Please drive through the area with caution as we get the plane safely removed from the freeway," it said on X.
The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) said the plane ended up on the freeway's "center divide," or median, which is apart from active traffic. Caltrans and the CHP said the plane landed on a northbound part of the roadway.
Flight tracking site FlightAware.com said the Cessna T206 Turbo Stationair departed from nearby Montgomery-Gibbs Executive Airport at 3:50 p.m. and flew along the coast to Oceanside before it returned to the area, where the emergency landing took place.
The plane is a six-seat Cessna built in 2005 with a tail number indicating it belongs to an aircraft rental business in the region, according to a Federal Aviation Administration registry. A principal listed for the business did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday night.
The FAA did not appear to have any preliminary reports about the landing online, and it did not immediately respond to a request for information.
The region has been home to multiple freeway landings since 2024, including an emergency landing Aug. 16 of this year of a 1980 Piper Cherokee with two people on board along the center divider of Interstate 805 in the Sorrento Valley area of San Diego. NBC San Diego reported no one was injured.
