Moment aircraft performs emergency landing on a rush-hour highway after starting to leak fuel

This is the breathtaking moment a plane performs an emergency landing on a rush-hour highway.

Motorists in British Columbia, Canada, were left slack-jawed as the light aircraft swooped down on to the carriageway and screeched along the tarmac on Friday.

The plane – piloted by an instructor on a lesson with a student – was reportedly leaking fuel from one of its wings and urgently needed to ground.

Roberto Alexander Castillo, 35, was with his boss driving home from work near Surrey when he saw the extraordinary scene of the plane rolling along the road.   

He said: ‘My co-worker, who is also my boss, was driving and I saw the plane coming down on the highway. I told him, ‘hey hey look at that plane, man!’

‘I was like ‘right in front of us, that plane is gonna crash!’

‘So he pulled over and we were like, what are we gonna do? Because we saw a big truck coming up behind the plane and we thought they were going to collide.

‘But they landed well, really well. At that moment I thought maybe they were filming a movie or something.’

According to local media, the plane was being piloted by a flight instructor, who had taken off with a student out of Boundary Bay Airport for a lesson.

Roberto Alexander Castillo, 35, filmed the light aircraft from the window of his car as it rolled along the carriageway near the city of Surrey

As the nose of the rotor-bladed aircraft emerges into view, a gobsmacked Roberto watches the bizarre scene

The instructor’s boss, Peter Schlieck of Canadian Flight Centre, hailed his employee for making a ‘perfect’ emergency landing.

He said: ‘He did a perfect job, no one was harmed and there wasn’t a scratch on the plane.’ 

‘The truck drivers slowed down and blocked the highway, and he was able to land the plane.

‘It was fantastic, considering Highway 17 is a busy highway and it was close to rush hour.’ 

But Roberto decided it was best to stay home after experiencing two close shaves that day.

The plane was forced on to the tarmac after a fuel cap came off and liquid started emptying from the craft

He said: ‘That day, before we came home, some building material had fallen down really close to us.’

‘Then, when we saw that plane, we were like ‘this is the second time today, this is crazy, something must be happening to us.’

‘After that I didn’t go out, I didn’t do anything, I stayed at home.

‘I sent the video to my guys and they asked if I was going to football practice and I said “no, I’m not going to go out, I’m kind of afraid.”‘