BREAKING: Plane Makes Emergency Landing On I-35 Near Barnum

The Minnesota State Patrol is advising motorists to take extreme caution when heading through the Barnum area on Interstate 35 after a single-engine plane made an emergency landing on the freeway.

A single-engine plane landed in the Northbound Lanes of I-35 near Barnum, Minnesota around 1 pm on Friday. WDIO is reporting that a driver reported the plane was now in the ditch. MN511 advises extreme caution while driving through the area. They expect the traffic incident to continue until 4 pm today.

The Minnesota State Patrol said the plane landed in a stretch of the freeway between exits 220 and 227, between County Road 4 and County Road 6.

The exact wording on MN511 is as follows:

Between Exit 220: Carlton County Road 6 (Barnum) and Exit 227: Carlton County Road 4 (Mahtowa) (1 to 7 miles north of Barnum). A traffic incident is reported. Drive with extreme caution. Until today at about 4:00PM CDT.

No injuries have been reported. There doesn't appear to be significant damage to the aircraft.

This traffic incident comes on one of the busiest traffic times for I-35 on any typical weekend as tourists are heading north. Add in the fact that it's Grandma's Marathon weekend, and you have a recipe for traffic backups.

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It's not clear what the emergency was on the single-engine plane. My guess would be engine trouble or fuel issue, as it was able to glide for a landing. The nearest airport is the Moose Lake Carlton County Airport, just south of where the emergency landing took place.