Cessna makes emergency landing along Parks Highway

WILLOW — It’s not uncommon to see cars and trucks using the pullouts along the Parks Highway, but travelers were likely surprised to see a Cessna 152 in a pullout near Mile 94.5 Tuesday evening.

Alaska State Troopers from the Talkeetna post received a report of the plane’s landing on the Parks Highway near Willow and responded to the scene.

The pilot, Chienwen Liu, 39, of Anchorage and his passenger, Fang H. Lin, 37, of Bakersfield, Calif., told troopers that they were not injured and that the rental airplane was undamaged.

The pilot said he had flown from Anchorage to Talkeetna earlier in the afternoon and that approximately 10 minutes after leaving Talkeetna airport to fly back Anchorage, the airplane engine stopped.

He said that the engine would not restart, so he elected to land the airplane on the highway.