Injuries only minor. After his engine went out approaching an airport, the pilot maneuvered his Piper Cherokee to the nearest thing that looked like a landing strip. Problem: Busy ground traffic. Image: Elizabeth Stockman
Engine failed 2-1/2 miles short of runway
BROKLYN PARK, Minn. — A small plane crash-landed into a car on a busy highway in the northwest Minneapolis suburbs, injuring the pilot and the driver. The plane came down 2-1/2 miles short of runways at the Ceystal airport. It clipped several power lines, then clided with a car. Neither the pilot nor the driver was seriously hurt, police sad. Their names were not released immediately. The accident happened about 10:30 a.m. Southbound Highway 81 was expected to be closed several hours. The plane was a single engine Piper Cherokee owned by Thunderbird Aviation at Crystal. The pilot was returning from a flight to South Dakota. The three-runway airport serves general aviation and a flight school and charters.