CALL FROM TRUCKER

A cell-phone call from a trucker on only one bar of service alerted State Police to the incident, Tibbitts said.

"You get one bar there standing on the highway."

The stretch is notoriously part of the "dark zone," an area lacking in cell-phone coverage, where several tragic accidents have occurred in recent years.

The closest airport would have been Adirondack Regional Airport in Lake Clear, some 65 highway miles distant.

BEST DECISION'

John Robertson, chief flight instructor at Seneca College, has 200 students enrolled in the aviation school.

The pair on the plane with Denning are third-year students enrolled in a four-year program.

"The crew would have had to make a decision based on assessment of conditions at the time of the occurrence," Robertson said.

"Landing on the highway was the best decision to reduce risk of injury and damage to persons and property."

The plane was not visibly damaged in the emergency landing, but it stopped traffic, which was rerouted for several hours Wednesday evening.

The Seneca College students were flying with their instructor from Toronto to Burlington, Vt.

Denning, also a graduate of the aviation school, and his student crew were already on their way back Thursday afternoon.

Part of the aviation program syllabus provides students with exposure to a number of flight factors, including crossing into American air space, Customs clearance procedures and flight patterns over hilly terrain and sparsely settled areas, Robertson said.

TRAINING WORKED