Bystanders stunned after plane makes emergency landing on Toronto area road

Now that Toronto Buttonville Municipal Airport has permanently shut down, drivers in the area may have thought that the days of planes making emergency landings on local highways were over.

But, just over one month since the hub's closure, yet another pilot has shocked motorists by using a GTA roadway as a landing strip in a pinch.

Bystanders in Ajax were treated to a rare scene on Monday evening when a small aircraft was forced to touch down on a major street after its engine failed mid-flight.

Well done on the pilot, any landing you can walk away from... 👍

— Algonquin 🇨🇦 (@Algonquin65) January 16, 2024

Skillfully dealing with what very easily could have been a catastrophic situation, the individual in the cockpit was able to gracefully maneuver the Cessna onto Bayly Street East near Audley Road South.

While local authorities say a few streetlights and the plane itself were damaged, miraculously, no injuries were reported as the vehicle landed in the middle of the thankfully empty four-lane thoroughfare.

Police closed the area to traffic as a result, but that didn't stop passersby from spotting the surreal scene, with the aircraft parked very out of place in the middle of the asphalt.

Footage from the scene shows damage to the wings of the plane, which may have clipped a traffic light left dangling by a wire.

A plane just landed on the road in Ajax
byu/redkulat intoronto

Many online are applauding the pilot's ability to stay calm and glide the aircraft to safety, with some joking that the person clearly missed the memo that Buttonville had closed.

Over the 50+ years that the Markham airport was in operation, multiple planes that either took off from or were due to land on its tarmac ended up on nearby roads after emergency landings, including on the adjacent Highway 404 and the 407 ETR.