Plane in the Fast Lane : Transportation: A student pilot approaching Van Nuys Airport is forced to land his Cessna on the westbound Simi Valley Freeway.

Astudent pilot whose small plane ran out of gas over Santa Susana Pass landed in the westbound lanes of the Simi Valley Freeway on Monday afternoon without causing any injuries or damaging the aircraft, the pilot and authorities said.

Mike Hines of Santa Clarita put the Skyhawk Cessna 172 down on the freeway and then rolled onto the median at 2:55 p.m. He had leased the plane from San-Val Flying Service of Van Nuys.

“It’s all in one piece,” said Hines, who works as a Beverly Hills police sergeant.

Hines, who has been flying alone for three months, said he was flying from Paso Robles Municipal Airport in San Luis Obispo County to Van Nuys Airport on Monday.

“I’m doing what is known as a cross-country solo,” he said.

In the solo, he must land at two airports and then fly back to his home base, all in one day.

The exercise was practice before a test to get his private pilot license, he said.

He was approaching Van Nuys Airport when the plane engine sputtered, and the propellers stopped turning.

All was silent in the cockpit, he said, “except my heart.”

Hines fiddled with the dials, he said, but “nothing was working.”

A fellow pilot spotted him and helped by radio to direct him to a safe landing site.

Hines said his first choice was a field about five miles from where he landed, but he found that it was too short and near a school, so he turned the plane around and headed back west over the Simi Valley Freeway.

“I hung over the traffic about 40 to 50 feet up, and as they could see me they dropped back,” he said.

“I was nervous but I knew I had a place to land . . .,” he said. “My only concern was that I would hit someone in a car.”

He set down near Tapo Street.

Although he said he had filled up on fuel in Paso Robles, the gas gauge read “empty” when he landed.

He said gas apparently had leaked out of a valve under the wing on the plane’s right side, leaving a brown goo.

“He did a pretty good job of setting down, from what I hear,” said California Highway Patrol Officer Dave Wigton. Officer Mike Serrano recalled about four similar incidents in Ventura County within the past eight years.

A flatbed truck from San-Val Flying Service arrived about 5 p.m. to haul away the plane.

Before loading it, San-Val workers took the wings off the plane, whose 36-foot wingspan would otherwise have crossed three lanes of traffic, Hines said.

Meanwhile, cars slowed as they passed, with some drivers giving the “thumbs up” sign at the unusual sight of a plane parked in the center of the freeway.

“It’s like lemmings,” Hines said.

San-Val officials declined to comment on the incident.