California

Two people who made an emergency landing on a southern California highway following an engine failure landed into another trouble after escaping one. 

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An instructor pilot and his student passenger were in the aircraft and after it landed, both of them were arrested for smuggling drugs, the police said.

NBC San Diego reported that the pilot was Gabriel Leon Breit, 21, accompanied by 36-year-old Troy Othneil Smith. Breit called officials around 1:45 am (local time) on Thursday morning and told them that the Piper Cherokee Pathfinder was experiencing engine trouble and he needed to land on State Route 76 in Oceanside.

The aircraft landed safely and both of them escaped unhurt. However, it seems like their ordeal had just started as the eagle-eyed police officials noticed one of them hiding a backpack in the brush on the side of the road. 

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Oceanside Police Assistant Chief Taurino Valdovinos said at a news conference that both of them were detained. Smith was found to be holding a small amount of cocaine, while a kilo of the drug was discovered in the backpack. 

Breit and Smith have been 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.

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Both of them had hired the aircraft after which they flew out of Oceanside on Wednesday afternoon and stopped in the Phoenix area for a short period of time. They were returning to Oceanside the same night but were forced to make the emergency landing.

NBC San Diego reported the owner of the plane saying that he rents out the craft through a flying club called Plus One Flyers. A private pilot’s license and a high performance aircraft sign-off are needed to charter his plane.

The owner, who wasn't named, said he came to know about the landing at 6:30 am (local time) and later learned of the drug arrests through news outlets. 

"You just can’t write this stuff," the owner said. "Unbelievable. Unbelievable that this is what people do."