Small plane, out of gas, lands on Hwy. 20 east of Bend

A small plane with three people aboard ran out of fuel Friday night on a flight from Northern California to Prineville and the pilot made a safe emergency landing on Highway 20E about 10 miles east of Bend.

No injuries were reported, nor damage to the plane or other property, and the pilot of the now-refueled plane took off again to complete the trip to Prineville more than three hours later.

An initial report that it might have been an airline’s plane instead brought out added first responders but was quickly disproven.

The first unconfirmed scanner reports around 7:15 p.m. indicated it was an Alaska Airlines plane, and also had two disputed location for the landing on stretches of the highway both west and east of Bend.

It soon became clear that it was a small, four-passenger aircraft instead, and all three occupants were reported safely out of the plane.

The plane was a Piper-PA28 Cherokee single-engine aircraft, according to Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Allen Kenitzer in Seattle.

Oregon State Police and ODOT crews were on scene and confirmed the westbound travel lane was blocked and that the plane had landed safely on the highway, without injuries.

Deschutes County Sgt. Aaron Harding said the pilot, William R. Espinoza, 30, of Prineville, was en route from Tracy, Calif., back home to Prineville when he apparently ran out of fuel. He was accompanied on the trip by his 11-year-old stepdaughter and his sister-in-law,, Rebekah Schantz-Kemper, 24, also of Prineville.

Espinoza declared an emergency and tried to divert to the Bend Airport to land, but couldn’t make it, prompting the emergency landing on the dark, straight and fortunately not busy stretch of highway near milepost 11, Harding said.

The National Transportation Safety Board and FAA were contacted about the incident and are conducting an investigation, the sergeant said. FAA records indicate the plane was built in 1971, and Espinoza bought it last month.

The plane briefly sat in the middle of the road following the landing, before officers and passersby arrived on scene.

“I barely missed the wing tip myself,” said Mark Anderson, a Bend resident who drove up on the scene shortly after the plane landed. “I backed up close to the plane, and helped him push it off the road so it wouldn’t get hit by another car.”

“I think he did a good job, putting the plane down in the middle of the night,” laughed Anderson.

The highway was reduced to one lane, then blocked off around 10:30 p.m., when the refueled plane took off, with only Espinoza aboard, and finished the trip to Prineville. Harding said the two passengers were picked up by a family member and riven to Prineville.

It was an uneventful takeoff, Harding said, although he added, “It was pretty surreal to see a plane taxing down Highway 20.”

Bend police, Oregon State Police. ODOT and U.S. Forest Service crews also assisted during the incident, he said.