Two escape injury when light plane crashes on CPKC main line in Iowa

By | April 23, 2023

Single-engine aircraft was attempting emergency landing on adjacent highway

Single-engine aircraft crashed on railroad track — Two people escaped serious injury when their light plane crashed onto CPKC railroad tracks Saturday in Buffalo, Iowa. Buffalo Volunteer Fire Department via Facebook

BUFFALO, Iowa — Two people suffered minor injuries early Saturday morning when their single-engine airplane crashed onto CPKC railroad tracks in Buffalo, WQAD-TV reports.

Responding to a report of a vehicle accident about 1:40 a.m. on State Route 22, officers from the Buffalo Police Department found a single-engine aircraft had crashed. The pilot was attempting to make an emergency landing on the highway, which closely parallels the railroad tracks, when the plane’s wing clipped a telephone pole, sending the plane onto the tracks. The pilot and a passenger were treated at the scene and released.

The Buffalo Volunteer Fire Department also responded (and said in a Facebook post that the aircraft accident was “a first”), as did the Scott County Sheriff’s Department.

Buffalo is just south of Davenport, Iowa, on the CPKC main line along the Mississippi River. The line currently sees about eight trains a day.

It was the second time in three days a light plane had ended up on railroad tracks while making an emergency landing. On Thursday, a plane landed on CN tracks near Flint, Mich. [see “Canadian National line in Michigan becomes landing strip …,” Trains News Wire, April 21, 2023].