Today started off like any other Monday. I was unusually chipper after an unusually great weekend. As I made my way along 580 at about 7mph, I listened attentively to the KCBS traffic report, as always. I thought I was experiencing major Deja Vu when I heard "Bit of breaking news here, we're getting reports of a small plane down on 580 in Castro Valley..." Not again!This time though, the pilot managed to land the plane safely, no accidents, plane intact and all. Well done. As the details and eyewitness accounts came in, a morbid thought entered my mind, "wouldn't it be funny if that was one of the KCBS traffic planes." I began to chuckle to myself "Oh the irony," I thought.
Then as the news anchors came back from a commercial break, they lead with "Well sometimes when you're reporting the news, you sometimes end up IN the news." What's this...could it be? "The plane that landed on 580 is in fact KCBS Sky 3" HA! What are the odds?! Well pretty good actually as it was 8:30am and they were headed back to Hayward for their scheduled landing. But the irony was just delicious.
Morbid fascination aside it sounds like the pilot is both hero and villain. He landed the plane in an emergency situation without incident, avoiding traffic while keeping the plane intact. Kudos. HOWEVER...he ran out of fuel. Rule number one of flying, know thine airplane. No matter how impressive his emergency landing was, he shouldn't have been in that situation in the first place. Unfortunately, it's going to leave a nasty blight on his record, and the traffic watch guys are usually budding pilots trying to build hours. But all's well that ends well. Everybody's safe, plane is intact, and most importantly, I got to work before the traffic backed up.