Engine failure forces plane to land on Yellowknife road

A stunt pilot heading to Yellowknife to take part in Saturday's airshow made an emergency landing on Deh Cho Boulevard over the lunch hour on Friday.

Pilot Stefan Trischuk of Saskatoon says as he was arriving in Yellowknife the engine of his Pitts Special biplane failed and he couldn't make the runway. He alerted airport authorities, who directed him to the nearby road. RCMP blocked traffic for his landing. 

Trischuk says he has never before landed on a road, but is trained for it.

"The road is quite a bit more narrow than runway, but everything happened so quick," he said. "Everything worked as planned, although I didn't have a lot of time. I had about 20 seconds to land once that engine quit."

After his landing, police helped him move the plane to the side of the road.

Trischuk's website says he is part of a Discovery Channel reality show about airshows.

Yellowknife airshow organizer Gord Van Tighem says the landing broke the plane's tail wheel.

Trischuk says he doesn't know if he will fly in the airshow on Saturday. He says that's up to the organizers and his first priority is to make sure the plane is mechanically sound and safe.

The airshow starts at 10 a.m. Saturday at the airport.