{"id":219197,"date":"2025-09-11T21:45:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-11T21:45:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/219197\/"},"modified":"2025-09-11T21:45:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-11T21:45:10","slug":"pilot-who-landed-on-i-805-had-switched-fuel-tanks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/219197\/","title":{"rendered":"Pilot who landed on I-805 had switched fuel tanks"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A pilot who made <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sandiegouniontribune.com\/2025\/08\/17\/no-one-injured-as-small-plane-makes-emergency-landing-on-i-805\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">an emergency landing<\/a> last month on Interstate 805 says the small plane\u2019s engine began to sputter after he switched fuel tanks early in the flight, according to a preliminary investigative report.<\/p>\n<p>No one was injured when the single-engine Piper PA-28 crash landed in the southbound lane of the freeway in Sorrento Valley on Aug. 16. During the landing, the plane\u2019s left wing struck a highway signpost and the aircraft came to rest upright against the center highway divider. No vehicles were hit.<\/p>\n<p>The left wing, fuselage and horizontal stabilator sustained substantial damage in the landing, according to the National Transportation Safety Board.<\/p>\n<p>The pilot, who is not identified in the report, told investigators that he and a passenger were taking \u201ca local personal flight\u201d and departed Montgomery-Gibbs Executive Airport in Kearny Mesa with \u201cfull fuel.\u201d After flying north along the coast for about 15 minutes, the pilot switched fuel tanks.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe did not recall whether he clearly felt the valve\u2019s position detents when adjusting the fuel tank selector valve handle,\u201d the report said. A detent is a mechanical component that creates a fixed stopping point for a control lever. It requires a pilot\u2019s conscious effort to move past it and is designed to prevent accidental selections.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSeveral minutes after switching fuel tanks, while at an altitude of 1,700 ft mean sea level, the engine began to sputter and lost partial power,\u201d the NTSB said.<\/p>\n<p>At that point, the pilot declared an emergency to air traffic controllers and tried troubleshooting the problem. He turned the fuel pump on, switched fuel tanks and checked the ignition, but the engine continued to sputter. That\u2019s when he initiated the \u201cforced landing\u201d in the southbound lanes of I-805, the report said.<\/p>\n<p>The four-seat plane landed near Carroll Canyon Road shortly after 5:35 p.m., officials said. The plane is registered to Vandelay Aviation LLC in San Diego, according to FAA records.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A pilot who made an emergency landing last month on Interstate 805 says the small plane\u2019s engine began&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":219198,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,1582,276,5295,1370,728,50,3549,3550,7264,49198,7289,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-219197","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-crime-and-public-safety","12":"tag-latest-headlines","13":"tag-local-news","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-san-diego","16":"tag-san-diego-county","17":"tag-sandiego","18":"tag-sorrento-valley","19":"tag-top-stories-sdut","20":"tag-united-states","21":"tag-united-states-of-america","22":"tag-unitedstates","23":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","24":"tag-us","25":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115187857855581881","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219197"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219197\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/219198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}