Emergency crews were called to an area of northern Prince George on Thursday where a small aircraft made an apparent emergency landing on a busy road.
Prince George RCMP said the incident happened around 2:30 p.m. PT on Foothills Boulevard near Highland Drive.
Mohit Arora had just turned onto Foothills Boulevard when the plane came down.
“Within a millisecond the plane comes on the road, and the left wing of the plane got struck with a pickup truck, that person got hit with the wing of the plane,” he said.
He said the driver of the truck was injured, but survived.
He said the aircraft’s propeller nearly struck his own vehicle.
“It was just stopped like 10 feet ahead from my car. I am so lucky that the fan and the blades did not hit my car,” he said.
“It’s trauma, like, for me, it was a very bad experience.
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“We are currently still triaging the scene with other first responders from the area,” said RCMP Cpl. Jennifer Cooper.
“We do know that two cars were also involved in this dynamic situation. It would have been impossible for drivers to necessarily predict and make emergency manoeuvres from this.”
Cooper said it was too soon to confirm any potential injuries.
In a brief statement, Prince George Fire Rescue said it was responding to a “serious motor vehicle incident involving a plane.”
The Transportation Safety Board said the incident involved a Beech King Air 200 aircraft, and that it was deploying a team to Prince George to investigate.
Images captured by Arora show a small passenger aircraft on the side of the road, with one of its propellers broken off and lying in the middle of the roadway.
A yellow car can be seen crashed on the side of the road, and a pickup truck with what appears to be debris from the aircraft smashed through the front windshield.
The aircraft appears to have suffered significant damage to at least one of its wings.
People are being urged to avoid the area and police say the road will be closed for “a considerable amount of time.”
More to come.
