Bemused residents looking at Portuguese tourists Pedro Lobo do Vale and wife Fatima kissing shortly after the plane landed on the highway

Three people emerged terrified but happy to be alive after their plane made an emergency landing on the busy Kampala-Masaka highway, reports Jude Kafuuma.

The six-seater plane, belonging to the Kampala Aero Club Flight Training Centre, had an emergency landing in the middle of the road at Kyabaddaza, about 40km west of Kampala.

Vehicles were forced to duck into the nearby bushes as the plane staggered in the middle of the tarmac, its wings spread across the road, towards a school compound.

The 11:15am incident drew a huge crowd of residents.

The Cessna plane, which had two Portuguese passengers on board, was travelling from Kisoro Gorilla Mountain Park to the airbase in Kajjansi, near Kampala.

Pilot Steve Considine and the passengers, Pedro Lobo do Vale and his wife, Fatima, were unhurt and visibly relieved.

Residents came to the rescue of the group and pushed the plane from the road towards Jireh High School.

“We don’t know what happened,” said Pedro Lobo do Vale. “We just saw the plane going down abruptly and the pilot directed it towards the road which he used as a runway. He didn’t speak to us until we came out.”

The tourists arrived in Uganda on Monday and were touring the country.

“This is an emergency but it is a wonderful experience that we never had before,” said Fatima. “We never came across so many children and native Ugandans and mixed with them so freely.”

The pilot said the plane was about 2,000 metres above the ground when it developed technical problems.

“The engine could not respond. Probably it was failure of the fuel pump to supply the engine.”

Spotting spills of fuel below the left wing of the Cessna plane, he remarked: “This could have been a leakage that led to the low supply of fuel to the engine.”

It was the first time he had to do an emergency landing, he added.

By press time, the plane was surrounded by curious revellers.

“I am confused on what to do with the passengers. I have called my boss in Kampala to come with a technical team to assist me,” Considine said.