Small plane makes emergency landing on Loudoun Co. Parkway near Dulles Airport

Southern Airways Express,flight 246 is seen having made an emergency landing on the Loudoun County Parkway, Friday afternoon, Jan. 19, 2024, in Dulles, Va., near Washington Dulles International Airport. There were seven people on board the single-engine Cessna 208 Caravan, according to Federal Aviation Administration and no injuries were reported. (AP Photos/Clifford Owen)

Federal Aviation Administration inspectors look at the engine of Southern Airways Express flight 246, which made an emergency landing on the Loudoun County Parkway, Friday afternoon, Jan. 19, 2024, in Dulles, Va., near Washington Dulles International Airport. There were seven people on board the single-engine Cessna 208 Caravan, according to the FAA, and no injuries were reported. (AP Photos/Clifford Owen)

An airbag is inflated to raise the wing of Southern Airways Express flight 246, which made an emergency landing on the Loudoun County Parkway, Friday afternoon, Jan. 19, 2024, in Dulles, Va., near Washington Dulles International Airport. There were seven people on board the single-engine Cessna 208 Caravan, according to Federal Aviation Administration, and no injuries were reported. (AP Photos/Clifford Owen)

Southern Airways Express flight 246, which made an emergency landing on the Loudoun County Parkway, is pulled away from the guard rail it crashed into by a flatbed truck, Friday afternoon, Jan. 19, 2024, in Dulles, Va., near Washington Dulles International Airport. There were seven people on board the single-engine Cessna 208 Caravan, according to Federal Aviation Administration, and no injuries were reported. (AP Photos/Clifford Owen)

A small commuter airplane that had just taken off from Dulles International Airport made an emergency landing on the Loudoun County Parkway near the airport on Jan. 19, 2024. (Courtesy Virginia State Police)

A small private airplane made an emergency landing on the Loudoun County Parkway near Dulles International Airport Friday afternoon. (WTOP/Neal Augenstein)

A small commuter airplane made an emergency landing on the Loudoun County Parkway on Jan. 19, 2024. (WTOP/Scott Gelman)

A small plane landed on the Loudoun County Parkway Friday, Jan. 19, 2024. (Courtesy VDOT)

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A small commuter airplane that had just taken off from Dulles International Airport made an emergency landing on the Loudoun County Parkway near the airport Friday afternoon, authorities say.

Virginia State Police said it happened at about 12:50 p.m. The airplane skidded into a guardrail, but avoided hitting any vehicles on the roadway and no injuries were reported.

A total of seven people were board the single-engine Cessna 208 Caravan at the time, including a pilot, a co-pilot and five passengers, according to state police.

The pilot was identified as a 27-year-old Florida man. Four of the passengers were adults and one was a 15-year-old boy, state police said.

“The pilot was able to safely land the plane in the roadway without striking any vehicles,” a Virginia State Police spokeswoman said in a statement. “The only damage that occurred was to the guardrail off the right side of the Parkway. ”

The Federal Aviation Administration will investigate the incident.

The aircraft was operated by Southern Airways Express, a regional commuter airline, and had taken off from Dulles Airport shortly before the emergency landing, the airport said in a statement on social media platform X. According to data from Flight Radar 24, the plane was headed to Lancaster Airport in Pennsylvania.

Eyewitness shares details of Loudoun County emergency plane landing

Eyewitness Jesse Labell was driving on the Loudoun County Parkway when he said he heard a loud noise, looked up and “there’s a plane 20 feet above me and then it landed 30 feet ahead of me,” before skidding into a guardrail, he told WTOP’s Neal Augenstein.

Labell said he helped get the passengers off the plane. He said everyone appeared to be OK, but shaken up.

“They were all just shocked,” he said.

WTOP Anchor Dan Ronan — a pilot and aviation expert — said flying isn’t easy. “It takes a lot of skill. It takes a lot of preparation.”

“I tip my cap to the pilot who did this and to basically not get anybody hurt or killed,” Ronan said.

“You have to time the landing and you are bringing the plane down, and here you’re coming down on the highway, you’re coming down on this, what appears to be a two-lane road … You have to time your landing in between the cars and you’ve got not just a piece of concrete in front of you, but you’ve also got other passenger vehicles. It’s quite a bit of good flying here to do this and to land this on the Loudoun County Parkway and not hit a cars and to not cause any injury.”

In a statement, the airline’s CEO, Stan Little, said, “We are relieved to report there were no injuries, and all passengers are safe and sound. We are thankful to our pilots, who did exactly what they were trained to do — to put the safety of our passengers first. We are working closely with the authorities to thoroughly investigate the situation.”

The landing sparked a large emergency response. The southbound lanes of the parkway are closed between Yardley Ridge Drive and Arcola Mills Drive, the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office said.

Video from Virginia Department of Transportation traffic cameras showed the plane in an intersection of the parkway surrounded by emergency response vehicles.

Dulles Airport remained open for takeoffs and landings, the airport said.

WTOP’s Will Vitka, Neal Augenstein, Scott Gelman and Carlos Ramirez and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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