In the early morning of 6 March 2003, an Air Force C-5 Galaxy transport plane landed at the Norfolk Naval Station on a runway over an interstate highway (I-564). Unfortunately, the plane's pilot was unable to adequately see the end of the runway in the darkened conditions and stopped the aircraft to avoid running off the pavement and into the mud, putting the plane in a position from which it could not be turned around under its own power. Neither the Norfolk naval station nor Langley Air Force Base in nearby Hampton had a tow bar big enough to use with the C-5 Galaxy, which at 247 feet long and 65 feet tall is one of the largest aircraft in the world, leaving the military transport plane stuck above I-564 for more than 16 hours while a special tow bar was trucked in from Dover Air Force base in Delaware.
Meanwhile, the naval station's Chambers Field was closed to all traffic save helicopters, and automobiles traveling to and from the base whizzed beneath the stuck C-5. The special tow bar arrived from Dover around noon and was used to hook the aircraft to a tractor, which succeeded in getting the plane turned around and moved off the runway by 4:30 P.M. Highway traffic was not disrupted, no one was injured, and the plane was not damaged.