BATON ROUGE, La. — James Ritter was shortly into his flight from the Baton Rouge Metro Airport Wednesday morning when his engine began to lock.
With little time to make major changes to his plan, Ritter said simply his choices for a landing were limited. "It was the trees or I-10."
Ritter chose I-10 and said that as he was getting close to landing, he had a close encounter with an 18-wheeler that sent him veering off into the trees.
Ritter wasn't hurt, but his plane was grounded and rubberneckers sent traffic backing up for miles.
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"It locked up... I'm trying to find a place to put it and I picked the interstate. I think I skimmed across the top of an 18-wheeler, which threw me over to the side and into the trees I went," said Ritter. "The interstate looked like a pretty good runway."
The incident happened just outside of Baton Rouge on I-10 a few miles from the Highland Road exit where construction already taxes motorists.
State Police said the plane wouldn't be moved until sometime Thursday so delays could be expected until that time.
"I thank the Lord," said Ritter of his close call.