Pilot, passenger arrested on drug charges after small plane makes emergency landing on Calif. highway: Cant write this stuff

A small plane made an emergency landing on a southern California highway — and the instructor pilot and his student passenger were arrested for smuggling drugs, according to police.The pilot, 21-year-old Gabriel Leon Breit, called authorities around 1:45 a.m.on Thursday morning and reported that the Piper Cherokee Pathfinder was experiencing engine trouble and he would be landing on State Route 76 in Oceanside, NBC San Diego reported.Breit and his passenger, 36-year-old Troy Othneil Smith, were uninjured and landed the craft safely — but when police arrived they saw one of the men hiding a backpack in the brush on the side of the road, Oceanside Police Assistant Chief Taurino Valdovinos said at a news conference.Breit, a flight instructor, and Smith, his student, were detained. Police discovered a small amount of cocaine on Smith.

Another kilo of cocaine was discovered in the backpack.Both were charged with drug trafficking.“It doesn’t surprise me.

I think we have narcotics coming into our country in various ways, but I think the surprising part is the emergency landing and how we came across it,” Valdovinos told reporters.Investigators said that the plane departed Oceanside on Wednesday afternoon and made a brief stop in the Phoenix area.Later that night, it was heading back to Oceanside when it was forced to land on the road.The plane’s owner told NBC San Diego that he rents out the craft through a flying club called Plus One Flyers, which requires a private pilot’s license and a high performance aircraft sign-off to charter his plane.Plus One confirmed Breit and Smith rented the plane as a flight instructor and student pilot, respectively.The owner, who wished to remain anonymous, said he was alerted to the emergency landing around 6:30 a.m.

and later learned about the drug arrest from the news.“You just can’t write this stuff,” the owner said.“Unbelievable.

Unbelievable that this is what people do.”Breit’s grandfather, Victor Keism...