Pilot who made emergency landing on Interstate 376 in Beaver County shares harrowing experience
CHIPPEWA TOWNSHIP, Pa. (KDKA) — A Moon Township pilot had to make a quick decision during a midflight emergency on Sunday afternoon and landed on a Beaver County interstate.
Jesse Langenhahn was doing some aerobatics in his single-engine Fergus SC-1 when he realized something was off.
"Between one of my sequences, I was just climbing back up to altitude and straight and level. And as I got within about 500 feet of my altitude, I felt like a little bit of power loss," Langenhahn said.
He said it wasn't enough to be worried. Moments later, he lost power more than 3,000 feet above the ground. He had only been flying for about 25 minutes.
"Was still turning, still had fuel pressure and oil pressure," Langenhahn said.
He also had gas, but Langenhahn knew he couldn't travel much farther or over the trees to the Beaver County Airport about 3 1/2 miles away.
"I had to put it down somewhere other than an airport," Langenhahn said.
Langenhahn looked for an opening in traffic on Interstate 376 in Chippewa Township amid the busy holiday traffic.
"My focus was trying to land with traffic and hope that the people in front didn't hit their breaks and the people behind me would stop and give me a little bit of a gap," Langenhahn said.
Eventually, around 12:45 p.m., he landed in the southbound lane of the interstate just south of the Pennsylvania Turnpike interchange. He then pulled onto the shoulder as strangers and first responders showed up.
"It was kind of overwhelming. It happened so quick," Langenhahn said.
Langenhahn has been flying for 22 years. He's a full-time pilot and only started doing aerobatics in the last year. However, he wasn't scared, saying it's something he's trained for.
"I'm happy the way it turned out. I was OK, plane's fine, minus whatever caused the power loss. But we're all in one piece so that's good," Langenhahn said.
The Federal Aviation Administration confirmed to KDKA that it's investigating.
Langenhahn's next step is finding a mechanic, and he hopes to get some answers about what happened.
"If it was maybe something compression-wise or something internal pressure in the engine? We're not sure yet," Langenhahn said.
The Beaver County Airport told KDKA it is not commenting on the incident at this time.
There were no reported injuries.
