Plane makes emergency landing near Las Vegas
A small plane made an emergency landing on a highway outside of Las Vegas on Tuesday.
The Metropolitan Police Department said in a social media post at 9:24 a.m. it was assisting the Nevada Highway Patrol with traffic control following the emergency landing of a small plane. The landing happened at about 9 a.m. in the area of Interstate 15 and mile marker 82, near Moapa.
“The pilot is OK” and traffic delays were expected as crews worked to assess the plane in southbound lanes, police said.
#BREAKING: We are assisting @NVStatePolice with traffic control following an emergency landing of a small plane around 9 a.m. on I-15 at mile marker 82 (near Mesquite)
The pilot is ok and there will some delays as crews work to assess the plane in the southbound lanes.
LVMPD… pic.twitter.com/5A6MlodCb3
— LVMPD (@LVMPD) October 21, 2025
A Clark County Fire Department spokesperson said the plane safely landed with only the pilot on board and that emergency crews were responding along with the Moapa Valley Fire Department.
The plane reportedly experienced engine troubles, the fire department spokesperson said.
In addition to the engine issues, Nevada Highway Patrol Trooper Shawn Haggstrom said, the pilot of the single engine Cessna 172 reported a landing gear malfunction. Troopers blocked traffic on northbound and southbound I-15 from mile marker 80 to mile marker 88, Haggstrom said in an email.
“The pilot was able to safely land the plane onto the Interstate without further issues and without injury,” Haggstrom wrote.
Metro said the highway was reopened by 10:20 a.m. and that “traffic is still moving slowly in the area.”
A search of the plane’s tail number on the flight tracking platform FlightAware shows it departed from the North Las Vegas airport at 8 a.m. and has logged dozens of flights since at least Oct. 7. The plane is registered to Las Vegas-based Ace of Spades Aviation LLC, according to federal aviation records.
In December 2024, a different Cessna 172 registered to Ace of Spades Aviation made a landing on Kyle Canyon Road near U.S. Highway 95. In that instance, two people were piloting the plane and landed safely, and were allowed to use the road as a runway to take off back to the North Las Vegas airport, the Las Vegas Review-Journal previously reported.
Nevada Secretary of State records list Thomas Trotter as an officer for Ace of Spades Aviation as well as Vegas Aviation LLC, which describes itself online as a flight school based in North Las Vegas. When reached by phone on Tuesday, Trotter said he wasn’t immediately able to answer questions.
Contact Casey Harrison at charrison@reviewjournal.com. Follow @casey-harrison.bsky.social on Bluesky.
