Sean D. Tucker, one of the world’s premiere aerobatic pilots and the owner of an advanced flight school he calls the Tutima Academy of Flight Safety, made an off-airport landing on one of California’s busiest highways Sunday and according to the California Highway Patrol it was because he ran out of gas. KSBW-TV is reporting that Tucker put an unidentified biplane down on Highway 101 near his home base of King City about 7:22 p.m. The station quotes the CHP as saying Tucker called a mayday, landed safely and then told them he’d run out of fuel.
The police told the TV station that after Tucker put fuel in the aircraft, they shut down a stretch of highway so he could take off. Tucker did not immediately respond to AVweb‘s e-mail and telephone requests for comment, so it’s not known whether there was a fault with the aircraft or it was a simple case of fuel exhaustion. We’ll be updating the story as more details emerge.
