A pilot who made an emergency landing last month on Interstate 805 says the small plane’s engine began to sputter after he switched fuel tanks early in the flight, according to a preliminary investigative report.

No one was injured when the single-engine Piper PA-28 crash landed in the southbound lane of the freeway in Sorrento Valley on Aug. 16. During the landing, the plane’s left wing struck a highway signpost and the aircraft came to rest upright against the center highway divider. No vehicles were hit.

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The left wing, fuselage and horizontal stabilator sustained substantial damage in the landing, according to the National Transportation Safety Board.

The pilot, who is not identified in the report, told investigators that he and a passenger were taking “a local pers

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