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3 Answers

Emergency Landing on an Interstate?

Asked by: 2594 views General Aviation, Private Pilot

First some context. I own a 1980 Saratoga based in Ohio. I enjoy taking my family on weekend trips to the south (Myrtle Beach, Hilton Head, etc.) I'm a VFR pilot and we fly direct (as much as possible) using the GNS 530.

However - the one part of the trip I hate is flying over the hills and mountains starting in West Virginia and ending in North Carolina. Being a single engine airplane, my worst nightmare is an engine failure with nothing but forested hills beneath me. We fly at 12,500 to increase our glide distance, but the airports are still too far apart.

Here is my question. Is it practical to fly along Interstate 77 through the mountainous portion of the trip? I know it wouldn't be ideal as an emergency landing site, and I understand there will be cars and traffic. However the alternatives aren't great either. Is this a good plan? Are there any other best practices for minimizing risk over the hills/mountains?

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3 Answers



  1. noexpert on Feb 01, 2016

    In the book “Flying Carpet: The Soul of an Airplane” by Greg Brown, he talks about doing exactly this when flying the mountains in Arizona. Makes sense to me.

    And that book is an entertaining read.

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  2. Doug Betts on Feb 02, 2016

    I’m an Ohio boy as well, and I frequently drive I-77 on the very route you describe. I can say without much hesitation that I think a successful forced landing in that area on I-77 would be highly unlikely. Most of the route is steep grades with many winding turns surrounded by tall tree-covered, sloping landscape on either side of the highway. Numerous wires often cross over the highway as well. It’s heavily traveled as well, so lots of traffic to add to your consideration, often traveling at 65-80 mph.

    You don’t say where in Ohio you’re departing from, but if it were me, I might try a more southerly route, say to Bristol, TN (KTRI) and then a dog leg over to Myrtle or Hilton Head. If I were more northeast Ohio, I might head over east of Pittsburgh, say Latrobe or the like and then head down on the eastern side of the Appalachians.

    That’s a little longer, but then again, it’s your family. That direct route can be over some pretty unforgiving country.

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  3. Skyfox on Feb 02, 2016

    Thinking back to my training days, I remember that once in a while the instructor would ask the question, “if your engine quit right now, where would you land?” It was for the purpose of instilling a habit of keeping good situational awareness and helping to be prepared for sudden surprises like an engine going out. Of course, we always flew over a lot of farm country so a good (well, acceptable) place to land was often no more than a mile away. On a very brief flying job, my copilot was a CFI and while enroute to the job location while flying over Lake Michigan, he asked me the same question (more like, “where would you crash?”). Over water like that, I had no idea where the best place to crash would be, and he pointed out the freighter ships a few miles away as a good place to crash in the water because a rescue would then be so close by.

    Point is, if you’re flying over rugged mountainous terrain with a covering of forest, and airports too far away to glide to, it would be a very good idea to keep within a good gliding distance of a highway because in such a situation, that would be your best place to set down with assurance of keeping the plane in one piece and keeping everyone alive. So I’d say your plan is spot on if your direct route takes you too far from safer landing places. And remember, altitude is your friend. The higher you can cruise, the farther you can glide in case of an engine failure. Keep the mixture a hair richer than peak EGT to provide fuel cooling to the cylinders, keep the big picture of situational awareness in your mind at all times, and always keep an “out” in mind just in case the brown thunder hits the propeller.

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