Traffic the only casualty as plane lands on I-495

The Piper Cherokee, piloted by Matthew Kleindienst, 24, of Stoughton, landed at 10:57 a.m. and left about 200 feet of skid marks before stopping with one wing resting on the guardrail. Kleindienst and passenger Brian K. Souza, 21, of Stoneham, walked away from the craft after the landing, dazed but uninjured, said Deputy Fire Chief Jim Puleo of the Mansfield Fire Department.

When rescue crews arrived moments after the landing, Kleindienst and Souza were walking on I-495. Traffic was heavy when the crews arrived - and heavier after the landing restricted travel to the breakdown lane. Officials were looking for witnesses to describe how Kleindienst landed without hitting a car.

“I’m grateful I wasn’t flying that airplane,’’ Puleo said at the scene, between Exits 10 and 11, near Route 140 and the Norton town line.

The pilot had been practicing stalls - slowing down the airspeed to the point that the wings stop giving the plane lift, said Jim Peters, a spokesman for the FAA. According to the administration, Kleindienst has been a licensed pilot since 2004. He is listed with the FAA as a commercial pilot and a certified flight instructor. It was not immediately clear whether Souza was a student and Kleindienst was showing him practice maneuvers, Peters said.

“The engine quit as he was practicing, and he couldn’t restart it,’’ Peters said. “It wouldn’t be unusual for a pilot to be up there - any pilot - to practice. There’s nothing wrong with what they were doing.’’

Neither the pilot nor the passenger could be reached for comment.

According to the Pocono Record, Kleindienst hails from Stroudsburg, Pa., and graduated with honors in 2007 from Bridgewater State College, with a bachelor of science degree in aviation and a concentration in flight training. He acquired commercial ratings with the Delta Academy, the newspaper reported.

Kleindienst rented the plane from East Coast Aero Club, a Bedford-based flight school and airplane rental. The owner, Mark Holzwarth, said in a telephone interview he was relieved there were no injuries or major property damage. Holzwarth also said Kleindienst has rented from his company without incident before.

“We’re very happy no one was hurt,’’ Holzwarth said, adding that he had not spoken with Kleindienst yesterday.

Holzwarth said his company operates like a car rental firm - the pilot has to be licensed, but he doesn’t have to disclose what he intends to do once the plane leaves the ground. “He left from Bedford airport. He’s a licensed pilot . . . and he can rent the aircraft and fly where he’s licensed to’’ fly, Holzwarth said.

Kleindienst would have done a preflight check as do all pilots before taking off, and that check probably would have uncovered any serious problem, Holzwarth said. “We don’t suspect any system issues,’’ he said. “As far as I know, the airplane was in fine condition before he left,’’ Holzwarth said. “But like anything mechanical, you can turn the key and hope everything continues to work. Sometimes it doesn’t . . . If something happened internally to the engine and caused it to run rough, it can happen whether you are flying straight and level or not,’’ he said.

If Kleindienst was engaged in a stall maneuver at the time, his action was no different from that of any other general aviation pilot, Holzwarth said. He said pilots routinely practice the maneuver and are required to show some mastery of it in order to be licensed by the FAA.

The plane, which he has owned since the 1990s, is probably a total loss, Holzwarth said. But, he said, he can’t do anything with the aircraft until the FAA completes its investigation. He also said he will wait and see what the cause of the crash is before deciding whether to rent to Kleindienst in the future.

The initial report from the FAA - that the plane had been monitoring automobile traffic from above - was incorrect, Peters said. East Coast Aero Club monitors traffic for the Massachusetts Highway Department and SmartRoute Systems, but the company had not been hired yesterday, said spokesman Adam Hurtubise.

The plane touched down on a stretch of interstate that runs parallel to the runway at Mansfield Municipal Airport, which is very close to the roadway. The pilot may not have had time to land on the runway, Peters said.

“There’s not a prohibition in terms of landing on a public highway in an emergency situation like this,’’ Peters said.

Before landing, the pilot reported engine problems to the air traffic control tower at nearby Norwood Memorial Airport. The plane had taken off earlier in the day from Hanscom Field Airport in Bedford.

The National Transportation Safety Board will investigate the accident because of the amount of damage the plane sustained when it landed, Peters said. One wing tore and the other crumpled. The front landing gear appeared to be bowed, tipping the plane forward at an angle. The nose looked mangled, with the plane’s lone propeller significantly bent.

Firefighters sprayed white foam and threw sand on the interstate to contain the estimated 10 to 15 gallons of fuel that spilled during the landing, Puleo said. Firefighters could be seen examining the plane, opening the doors, and looking inside the cockpit.

Public safety officials closed all southbound lanes to traffic while they used a crane to load the plane onto a flat-bed truck and haul it to Mansfield Municipal Airport for examination. Traffic was tied up on I-495 for hours.

“After a little while in public safety, nothing is surprising anymore,’’ said Puleo, the deputy fire chief. “But we’re very grateful nobody was hurt.’’

John R. Ellement of the Globe staff and Globe correspondent Stewart Bishop contributed to this report.