Current Events

A Vintage Plane Causes Delays When Crashed on 101 Freeway

Hiva Mohammadzadeh, Writer|November 11, 2018

On October 23rd at 1:45pm, a vintage World War II style plane crashed in the middle of the busy 101 Freeway in Southern California, bringing traffic to a standstill. The plane crashed on the far left lane of the Northbound freeway and erupted in flames. The aircraft ended up crumpled up against the center divider. Fortunately, no vehicle was involved and the pilot wasn’t injured.

The crash occurred after the pilot, Robert Sandberg, issued a mayday when his engine lost power. Sandberg says “I picked a spot on the freeway where I knew there was a big section of cars that weren’t there, but the engine completely failed, I was able to, fortunately, not hurt anybody, other than the airplane.” When landing, he lost control of the plane when landing and collided with the center divider, according to the CHP. Good Samaritans helped him safely exit the plane. The plane was seen flying in low and touch down on the freeway, bouncing up a few times before coming to rest on the center divider.

The plane sustained substantial damage, primarily from the fire that erupted after the crash and burned away much body of the aircraft. The crash shut down both sides of the freeway, creating a miles-long traffic backup before one lane of northbound traffic and two southbound lanes of the 101 Freeway were reopened around 5 p.m.

This affected Taft’s staff and students because it happened an hour before the bell and did not let the students and faculty take the freeway. A lot of students had to stay in traffic due to the closure of the freeway. “I was shocked about a plane having an emergency landing in the freeway, but I was also really mad that some lanes of the 101 freeway were closed and I had to wait in traffic for a long time in order to get home”, says a senior student, Kassandra Rivera.