Pilot lands overheating plane on I-35 exit ramp, taxis to Kwik Trip

STACY, Minn. (FOX 9) - A small yellow plane made an emergency landing Saturday morning on an Interstate 35 exit ramp in Stacy, Minnesota.

According to the Chisago County Sheriff’s Office, the plane was overheating and had to make an emergency landing.

The pilot, Michael Robbins, 47, of Green Lake, Minn., saw that his plane was at an unsafe temperature to continue to fly and determined he needed to land quickly, according to Sgt. Steve Pouti of the Chisago County Sheriff's Office. 

"My alarms started going off in my dash to let me know I have a serious problem, and then I started looking for a place to land and that was the best option," Robbins said. 

Robbins decided to use the exit ramp to land and then he taxied the plane to a Kwik Trip parking lot in the area.

"At the time, I stayed calm," he said. "Afterward, I got worried and started shaking." 

Later, the pilot determined the issue was due to a coolant leak, which he fixed in the parking lot. 

"It got cooked onto the muffler, just spraying out there slowly and brought me down," Robbins added. "That started flashing to let me know I had a serious problem." 

Later, deputies temporarily closed Stacy Trail so Robbins could take off again and fly the plane safely to the Cambridge Municipal Airport, which was his intended destination. 

The Sheriff’s Office said there were no injuries or damage as a result of the emergency landing. The FAA was notified of the incident, but does not need to get involved because no injuries or damage to property occurred. The landing is not classified as a crash.

In a Facebook post about the incident, the Chisago County Sheriff’s office joked, “We are deciding whether or not to issue him a citation for being quadruple parked though.”