A small airplane carrying seven people made an emergency landing on the Loudoun County Parkway in Virginia shortly after taking off from Dulles Airport Friday, according to the Federal Aviation Administration, in just the latest safety incident in the air travel industry.
Washington Dulles International Airport Terminal (Photo by Angelo Hornak/Corbis via Getty Images)
A single-engine Cessna 208 Caravan made “a hard landing” on Virginia State Route 606 while at around 12:50 p.m. while en route to Lancaster, Pennsylvania Friday, the FAA said in a statement to Forbes, adding that it would investigate the incident.
The Virginia Department of Transportation shared a photo of the plane on the highway shortly after the incident, noting on X “there is in fact a small plane in the roadway” and southbound lanes were closed on the parkway.
The Dulles International Airport confirmed the incident and noted that the airport remained open to takeoffs and landings.
State police told local media outlets that there were no injuries—Forbes has also contacted state police for comment.
It was not immediately clear what prompted the emergency landing—though it has been snowing near the airport, and a Winter Storm Warning is in effect until 7 p.m. tonight, according to the National Weather Service.
The incident comes on the heels of another emergency landing, when a Boeing 747 cargo plane made an emergency landing at Miami International Airport after the plane suffered an engine malfunction and caught fire early Friday. And it also comes amid the FAA and National Traffic Safety Board’s investigation of Boeing after a “plug” door blew off a Boeing 737 Max 9 plane mid flight earlier this month.
Severe winter weather has bombarded the East Coast in recent days, leading to more than 50 deaths and delaying more than 4,200 flights across the country on Friday.