WATCH: Plane makes emergency landing on four lane road

(FOX 2) - "This is a first." That's what Trooper Clint Thompson said when he was interviewed after helping a single-prop plane make an emergency landing.

Thompson's been a Washington state trooper for 21 years but said he's never seen anything like this.

He was driving down a four-lane road in Washington when he spotted the small plane coming in low. He made a quick u-turn, was able to slow traffic, and give the pilot plenty of space to land safely.

He told KOMO's Keith Eldridge that instinct just took over when he came up with that plan to save the plane and road.

After the plane landed, he walked up to the pilot - who was on his radio - and he wasn't injured. So the trooper said they decided they needed to clear the road.

A spokesperson for the Washington State Patrol, Trooper Johnna Batiste, said nobody was hurt. She said the emergency landing was prompted by a fuel-system malfunction in the single-prop KR2 plane. Troopers pushed the plane off the road, she said.

This story wasa written in Southfield, Mich.