Biplane’s Bugs Found the Hard Way

The idea was to take John Gambil’s single-engine biplane for a shakedown spin Wednesday, to watch for “minor bugs and flaws,” as Jeff Kertes described it later.

“John just bought it three or four weeks ago,” said Kertes, 43, a flight instructor at Burbank Airport. “We flew it over to Van Nuys for lunch. . . . We were more or less checking it out.”

As it happened, Kertes and Gambil, of Canyon Country, found more than “bugs” when they lifted off from Van Nuys Airport for the return trip to Burbank. At 4,000 feet the engine quit, forcing Kertes to land the plane in an unplanted corn patch in the Sepulveda Basin, near Victory Boulevard in Reseda.

FAA Investigating Accident

Neither man was injured in the 3 p.m. emergency landing, which is under investigation by the Federal Aviation Administration. But the plane underwent a major redesign, losing a wing and crumpling its right side when it clipped a tree before touching down.

Although flameless, the unceremonious landing drew four engines from the Los Angeles Fire Department and a horde of reporters and news photographers.

Sitting at the edge of the field shortly after the accident, Kertes and Gambil said they had no idea what killed the engine of the two-seat “Starduster Too.”

Gambil, 54, said he recently bought the home-built plane, but he did not want to identify the seller. He also declined to say how much he paid for the plane, for reasons related to “insurance.”

Won’t Forget Crash

But both men agreed that they wouldn’t soon forget the drama that started about 12 miles from the Van Nuys Airport, when the engine suddenly went silent.

Kertes said he was able to briefly revive the engine by switching to a second gas tank in the open-cockpit plane. But the engine died permanently a few moments later, after Kertes radioed the Van Nuys tower to report that he was having trouble.

Kertes said he piloted the gliding plane to an open field he had seen while taking off. He encountered one of a clump of trees on the way down.

Both men climbed unscathed from the wreckage, except for a small cut below Kertes’ nose.

“It took about four minutes,” Kertes said of the incident before driving away with a group of FAA inspectors. “But it seemed more like 10 seconds. . . . You can say I feel relieved.”

Plane owner Gambil didn’t say how he felt.