Plane makes emergency landing on Hwy. 93

A former Polson resident had the flight of his life Sunday when he had to land in the middle of Highway 93 just minutes after attending the Kalispell air show.

Just after 9 a.m., Dwayne Knudson had to make an emergency landing in his 1966 Cessna 150 airplane on Highway 93 near mile marker 70, just north of Jette Lake, after losing engine power and his radio at close to 6,500 feet.

Knudson was on a return flight to the Belgrade airport when the incident occurred. He now lives in Bozeman where he works after his graduation from Montana State in Bozeman last spring.

He left the Belgrade airport Wednesday and spent some time visiting friends and family in Missoula and Plains. On Sunday he was returning to Plains after attending the Kalispell air show when the unforgettable happened — he lost power and radio contact.

After the engine gave out and sputtered Knudson began to lose altitude. At this time it became apparent to him that he was going to have to put the aircraft down.

"It (engine power) was not enough to maintain altitude," Knudson said.

He called his brother from his cell phone from the quiet cockpit, which is normally too loud to carry on any conversation without proper headsets and microphones. Knudson's brother, who attended the air show with him, was driving back to Plains and was in the same general area as the aircraft. After calling his brother Knudson connected his spare radio battery so he could radio "mayday" to surounding aircraft to inform them of his location. At this point he knew he was going to have to put his plane down.

"At first it caught me by surprise but I put it behind me and flew the plane," Knudson said.

He decided to change his original path to Plains and started heading to Polson, flying over highway 93, in hopes of using the road as a runway if he could not make it to the airport.

"I was losing altitude pretty fast and I wanted to follow the highway," he said. "Lucky for me the road opened up in the double-passing lane and there were no cars in the road. I touched down no problem."

Lake County dispatch received a call at 9:14 a.m. reporting that a plane had just made an emergency landing on Highway 93. Sheriff's deputy Becky McClintock and Jodi Durham responded to the call, according to Lake County dispatch. Soon after McClintock and Durham were on scene, Montana Highway Patrol Officer Garrett Van Hoose arrived.

"I was called out by Lake County to respond. We didn't know what we had at this point," said Van Hoose.

Once officers were on scene and the airplane was no longer a danger to traffic Knudson started reviewing the aircraft, trying to find out what caused his engine to fail. A maintenance worker from the Polson airport helped Knudson review the aircraft and find the problem. It was a fuel-flow problem that was easily fixed, but it was not something that was on his in-flight emergency check list.

"It was really a simple fix," said Knudson.

Knudson was told at the scene that it was perfectly legal to land a plane on Montana highways for emergency landings, but he said either way he would have been more than happy to deal with any ticket that could have been issued.

After spending close to two hours at the road side turn out Knudson's aircraft was ready to continue. Van Hoose, McClintock, and Durham measured off 1,500 feet of roadway to be used as a makeship runway for Knudson's take-off.

"I wanted to make sure everything was OK with the take-off distance," said Van Hoose.

Knudson drove the road a couple times to get an idea of the turns and speed he would need to take-off. The road runway started with a slight turn to the right and then a straight-away area where he hoped to get lift and clear the trees before the a lefthand turn. After all the pre-flight checks he was ready for take off. Deputies McClintock and Durham went in opposite directions on U.S. 93 and closed down more than one mile of the highway before Knudson could taxi and take-off.

Once the roadway was cleared Knudson and was able to make a quick and safe take-off, with Van Hoose followed a safe distance behind. The take-off was quicker than normal because Knudson was traveling downhill and there was a slight head wind.

"This was my first time responding to something like this. I followed him to make sure he got off OK," said Van Hoose.

After taking off Knudson headed to the Polson airport where he fueled up and did a couple touch-and-goes before heading to Belgrade. Two hours later Knudson arrived in the Gallatin Valley safe and sound. He was able to remain calm during his morning problem and he said he didn't change how he flew much during his final leg.

"I may have flown a little bit higher than I would have, just for safety. The higher you fly the 'safer' you are," said Knudson. "You just have more time to react."

Knudson who has had his pilot's license for three years has logged more than 330 hours of flight time and he said most of them came on his personal Cessna 150. Knudson graduated from Polson High School in 1999. His mother Kathy lives in Polson and his father John lives in Plains. After all of Sunday's events, Knudson had to report to his first day of work Monday morning.