Plane makes emergency landing in the middle of UK dual carriageway and brings traffic to a standstill

A plane has crash landed on a busy dual carriageway and blocked traffic in both directions in the middle of peak hour.

Police were called to the A40 Golden Valley Bypass in Gloucestershire shortly before 6pm on Thursday night after a light aircraft made an emergency landing on the grassy central reservation between lanes near Gloucestershire Airport.

Photos show the yellow plane, which has now been moved off the road by emergency services, blocking both the lanes with its wings and traffic queued in both directions.

Gloucestershire Police said that no one was injured and no other vehicles were involved in the incident.

Traffic was held up for more than an hour until the plane was removed from the road.

"It was quite early on as everyone was stopping. The wings of the plane completely spanned the lane I was in, so I indicated to the inside lane," he said.

He continued: "As I drove past some people were trying to help the pilot out of the stricken plane. I continued my journey and as I got to Arle Court roundabout the police were starting to close the carriage way.

"It looked like the pilot managed to down the plane in the perfect place to not cause any harm considering it was towards the end of rush hour."

Witnesses and people on social media have praised the pilot for landing the plane safely and only causing minimal damage to the crash barriers on the dual carriageway.

"Well done to the pilot in their handling of an emergency landing. Minor damage to crash barriers and no lives lost. Top Man!" one person tweeted.

Another added: "I mean it is unusual but better than landing in someone's back garden."

A third said: "How brave was that pilot? Amazing."