The woman training in a small plane with a pilot spoke to NBC4 after engine problems forced an emergency landing on a highway. Jane Yamamoto reports for the NBC4 News at 11 on Monday, Jan. 11, 2016.
A small plane made an emergency landing on lanes of California Route 23 in the Moorpark area Monday afternoon.
"I’m just grateful that I’m alive," Danielle Lagree, the training pilot, said. "When he started telling me find a place to crash, I knew we were crashing."
A driver who captured cell phone video as she approached the plane said she was "freaking out."
"A plane just literally landed on the freeway!" Leah Konigsberg can be heard saying in the video.
No one was hurt when the engine began sputtering and forced a student and pilot to make the emergency landing, officials said.
"It was either the dirt patch or the highway and [the pilot] said when you land on a dirt path you have 30 percent chance of living," Lagree said.
Traffic appeared to be moving smoothly past the plane, which was pushed aside into the median area.
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Lagree said while the incident shook her up, she was going to get back out there and fly.
"I have 70 hours under my belt," Lagree said. "I just want to follow through with my dreams and can’t let this incident stop me."
