Reporter, Pilot Hurt in Crash of Ultralight

Television newsman Jesse Macias and pilot George Evangelou were injured Thursday in the crash of an ultralight aircraft near Lake San Vicente in Lakeside.

The accident occurred one day after a San Diego City Council committee voted unanimously to deny Evangelou’s request to build a landing strip for the aircraft in the San Pasqual agricultural preserve.

Macias, 37, was riding in the craft piloted by Evangelou, 32, as part of a story Macias was working on about “the problems ultralight pilots were having finding suitable places to land their aircraft,” KFMB executive news director Jim Holtzman said.

The craft took off from a field near Vigilante Road and was flying over Lake San Vicente when “the pilot lost power and realized he couldn’t make it to a field where he wanted to land,” said Sgt. Lynn Ziegler of the Santee Sheriff’s station.

The craft had been airborne about 15 minutes when it crashed into the side of a hill around 10:30 a.m., Ziegler said.

Macias was taken by helicopter to Sharp Memorial Hospital, where officials said he was in fair condition with one fractured vertebra. “He’s alert and awake but pretty shaken up,” said hospital spokeswoman Ann Verhoye.

Evangelou was admitted to El Cajon Valley Hospital in El Cajon, where he was listed in fair and alert condition with two compression fractures in his back and minor cuts and bruises on his forehead.

Evangelou, operator of an airstrip for ultralight aircraft near Lakeside, sought permission from San Diego to build another one in the San Pasqual area, which lies between Rancho Bernardo and Escondido, on 20 acres of a 1,450-acre ranch that William Witman leases from the city. Evangelou said the small planes are safe and not that noisy. He had argued that the craft’s 50-horsepower engines are considerably less noisy than crop dusters.

“It’s absolute nonsense to say we would disturb people in the valley,” Evangelou told reporters after his unsuccessful attempt to win approval of the airstrip lease.

Evangelou also said the little aircraft was an inexpensive and safe way to fly. In case of power failure, he said, the craft could drift to the ground or the pilot could deploy a parachute to bring the craft and its crew safely and slowly to earth.

FAA spokesman John Hull said the the accident was under investigation.