Pilot’s ‘Bird’ Finds a Tree to Nest In

Tom Crowder was calm, cool, collected--and uninjured--Sunday as he climbed down from the tall, bushy tree in Sunland into which he had just crash-landed his small biplane.

“The engine quit,” the 68-year-old pilot said matter-of-factly as he related the story of his ordeal to rescue workers and bystanders.

“When you’re coming down and you haven’t got an engine, you head for the tallest, softest tree you can find,” Crowder said. “That’s the best place in the world to set a plane down. It acts as a shock absorber.”

Without a Scratch

The veteran World War II pilot’s philosophy worked so well Sunday that he walked away from the crash scene without a scratch after guiding the plane down into a tree just a few blocks from his Sunland home.

Crowder said he was en route from Riverside to Santa Paula, where he kept his homemade plane, at about 2:30 p.m. when the engine lost power. He said he first tried to head for the Tujunga Wash but began looking for a tree when he realized he would never make it that far.

“Oh, I would say I was about 2,000 feet above the terrain,” Crowder said.

Comes to Rest in a Tree

The yellow-and-black plane went through some power lines before coming to rest in the tree about 40 to 50 feet above the ground in front of 11036 O’Dell Ave. A power pole helped hold the plane in the tree.

About eight homes were without electricity for a few hours after the crash. But power was restored shortly after 6 p.m. when National Transportation and Safety Board officials, called to the scene to investigate the crash, allowed the plane to be removed from the tree.

Firefighters at the scene said Crowder was the most unperturbed crash victim they had ever seen.

Asked how he got down from the tree, Crowder said: “I climbed down. What else?”