Ketchikan man makes emergency
landing on Oregon freeway
February 27, 2007
Tuesday
A 34-year Oregon State Police veteran thought he had seen it
all until he saw an amphibian-style airplane in his rearview
mirror after it made an emergency landing Sunday morning on Interstate
84 about fifteen miles east of Baker City due to poor weather
conditions. The plane was able to take off about three hours
later with the assistance of Oregon State Police troopers and
Oregon Department of Transportation personnel.
Pilot Jerry Alan Scudero
from Ketchikan, Alaska, told Oregon State Police that he was
flying the plane to a Pendleton-area airport while enroute to
Alaska when weather conditions began to "sock in" the
plane.
Photograph courtesy Oregon State Police
According to an Oregon State Police news release, on February
25, 2007 at approximately 10:50 a.m., Senior Trooper Robert Hereau
was stopped on Interstate 84 eastbound near milepost 320 at the
scene of a non-injury traffic crash when he heard a loud noise.
According to Sergeant Darin Helman, the senior trooper looked
in his rearview mirror and saw an airplane taxiing on the eastbound
lanes coming up behind the patrol car.
Senior Trooper Hereau allowed the 1952 DeHavilland DHC-2Mark1
"Beaver" amphibian plane go past the patrol car and
continue eastbound until it found a wide area on the side of
the freeway to pull off to allow other traffic to be able to
pass the plane which has about a 48-foot wingspan. Senior Trooper
Hereau followed the plane up to the point where it was able to
stop and contacted the two occupants.
With the assistance
of the Oregon Department of Transportation and
a local tow company, the plane was later moved back onto the
eastbound lanes when weather conditions improved.
Photograph courtesy Oregon State Police
The pilot, Jerry Alan Scudero, age 55, from Ketchikan, Alaska,
told Oregon State Police that he was flying the plane to a Pendleton-area
airport while enroute to Alaska when weather conditions began
to "sock in" the plane. Scudero said he had to make
an emergency landing on the freeway and had been taxiing for
about two miles to find a wide area to pull off onto when he
saw the Oregon State Police trooper.
Neither Scudero, or his passenger, Jerry Foresyth, age 58, from
Saanichton, British Columbia, were injured.
With the assistance of the Oregon Department of Transportation
and a local tow company, the plane was later moved back onto
the eastbound lanes when weather conditions improved. At about
1:30 p.m., the plane was able to take off again and resume on
its trip.
Source of News & Photographs:
Oregon State Police
http://www.oregon.gov/OSP/
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