JoCo pilot arrested after plane runs out of fuel and lands on I-70 near Oak Grove

A pilot made an emergency landing on westbound Interstate 70 near Oak Grove after the small plane he was flying ran out of fuel, a Missouri State Highway Patrol spokesman said.

The pilot was arrested on suspicion of being intoxicated on drugs and alcohol, said Sgt. Andy Bell, a spokesman for highway patrol. He was taken to a hospital for treatment of minor injuries.

The pilot, a 35-year-old Prairie Village man, was arrested on suspicion of DWI, careless and imprudent actions that involved a crash, felony possession of a controlled substance, felony unlawful possession of a firearm, possession of less than 10 grams of marijuana and unlawful possession of drug paraphernalia, according to the arrest report.

The pilot has a student pilot certificate that was issued in January 2020, according to the FAA airmen registry. He is prohibited from carrying passengers.

The Piper Cherokee single-engine aircraft is registered to Warrior Aviation LC of Prairie Village, according to the FAA’s online aircraft registry.

The pilot is believed to have traveled from Florida and was en route to the Wheeler Downtown Airport in Kansas City, Bell said.

The plane appears to have been a return flight to Kansas City. The plane took off from Wheeler Downtown Airport in Kansas City around 3 a.m. Thursday and flew down to Florida, according to flightaware.com, a website that tracks aircraft.

The plane flew to several Florida airports, including Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport in Panama City and Daytona Beach Intentional Airport, according to the flightaware.com

It’s unclear when the plane headed back to the Kansas City area, but the website picked up the plane near Corinth, Mississippi, and tracked it to Sommerville, Tennessee, between 10:20 p.m. and 10:45 p.m. Thursday, and again near Walnut Ridge, Arkansas, and Camdenton, Missouri, between 11:30 p.m. Thursday and 1:20 a.m. Friday.

At about 2:15 a.m., the website picks up the plane again, this time near Warrensburg, Missouri. FlightAware tracked the flight until 2:34 a.m., when both its altitude and speed dropped as it neared Lee’s Summit.

The plane landed on the highway shortly before 2:45 a.m. striking a guardrail along the side of the interstate, Bell said. The pilot was the only person onboard and sustained minor injuries. No vehicles were hit by the plane, he said.

Initially it was believed that the incident would impact the morning commute as crews worked to remove the airplane. The affected area was near mile marker 26 between Grain Valley and Oak Grove in Jackson County.

Shortly before 5:30 a..m., the patrol reported that the plane had been removed and all lanes of I-70 were back open.

The Federal Aviation Administration was assisting with the investigation.