A small plane crashed onto a busy San Jose highway Saturday afternoon, leaving the aircraft a mangled wreck with its nose crushed against the roadway.
The propeller-driven aircraft went down in the area of Capitol Expressway and Excalibur Drive shortly after 3 p.m., according to the San Jose Fire Department. Two adults and a child were on board when the plane came down on the highway.
All three occupants survived the crash and were transported to a hospital for evaluation. The fire department described their injuries as non-life-threatening, noting they were taken “out of an abundance of caution.”
The aircraft sustained significant damage in the incident. Photos from the scene showed the plane’s nose crushed and bent against the roadway, with the front portion of the fuselage crumpled from the impact.
The crash occurred in the heart of San Jose, a major city in California’s Silicon Valley region. Capitol Expressway runs through a densely populated area of the city, making the emergency landing particularly hazardous given the Saturday afternoon traffic conditions.
The San Jose Fire Department responded to the scene and managed the aftermath of the crash. Officials have not yet released details about what caused the plane to go down or where the flight originated.
The National Transportation Safety Board typically investigates small aircraft crashes in the United States, though it was not immediately clear whether investigators had been dispatched to this scene.
California has seen multiple small aircraft incidents involving highway landings in recent years, with pilots sometimes using roads as emergency landing strips when mechanical issues or other problems arise during flight.
The fire department did not identify the occupants of the plane or provide information about the aircraft’s registration or owner.