You’ve seen footage from the emergency landing of a piper plane near Signal Hill, California but here’s the unorthodox way police determined was the safest way to tow the plane back to its airport.

A piper plane made an emergency landing earlier today (Apr. 1, 2019) in Signal Hill, Calif after losing power and deciding the nearby 405 wasn’t a feasible landing strip. Exclusive footage shot by the towing company called in, Pepe’s Towing Services, shortly after the emergency crew’s wrapped up their investigation, shows the strange way they had to load up the Piper Plane on the flatbed trailer.

Check out the series of Instagram posts from Pepe’s towing below.

View this post on Instagram

Plane emergency landed in signal hill!

A post shared by Pepe's Tow Service Inc (@pepestowing) on

You’d think the easiest way to load up a small plane onto a flatbed trailer is nose first and you’d be right, except police instructed Pepe’s towing to load up the Piper Plane, via a rotator, sideways with most of the plane hanging to one side.

After a quick search on Wikipedia, it’s somewhat obvious why police would want to do this. Generally, piper planes have a 30-foot wingspan, but, from propeller tip to tail, they’re only 23.3 feet long. In the general interest of safety and to get this plane home without causing damage to the city of Signal Hill and Long Beach, they loaded up the plane sideways.

With a police escort, the tow truck can position the plane smack dab in the middle of the road. Even at 23 feet wide, the Piper plane takes up most of the road as is. Sure, you probably could get away with towing the plane nose to tail but why risk it?

I’ve got to tip my hats to these hard working tow truck drivers because shortly after they drove that piper back to the airport, they not only had to finish a previous tow job but get this overloaded dump truck out of trouble in Beverly Hills.

If you see the guy’s around town, ask them about that Piper plane tow, I’m sure they’ll get a kick out of telling you about it.

Source: Pepe Towing

 

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