Three injured as plane lands on New York expressway

A small plane made an emergency landing Saturday on the Major Deegan Expressway in the Bronx. Three people suffered minor injuries. (Andrew Gombert / European Pressphoto Agency / January 4, 2014)

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• New York raises legal age for buying tobacco from 18 to 21Three people suffered minor injuries after a small plane made an emergency landing on a New York City expressway Saturday afternoon, emergency officials said.

The plane, a Piper Cherokee Aircraft, had departed from Danbury, Conn., to go on a tour of the Statue of Liberty when there was "an on-board emergency," Nancy Silvestri, deputy press secretary of New York City's Office of Emergency Management, told the Los Angeles Times.

The emergency landing happened at about 3:20 p.m. on the Major Deegan Expressway in the Bronx, she said.

Khalid Baylor, a spokesman for the Fire Department of New York, told The Times the plane experienced "some type of engine trouble" but had no further details.

There was no fire and no fuel spilled. No cars were hit, but the three-lane expressway experienced heavy traffic following the landing, he said.

The three people in the plane -- two passengers and a pilot -- were treated at the scene for "non-life-threatening injuries" and taken to St. Barnabas Hospital in the Bronx, Silvestri said.

Silvestri said Federal Aviation Administration officials had moved the plane from the expressway and were investigating.