Huntington Beach : Pilot Has Close Call in Meadowlark Landing

A pilot who tried to land his plane Saturday while approaching Meadowlark Airport “too high and too fast” came to a crashing halt, with minor damage to the plane, police said.

Alireza Sabri, 27, of Santa Ana struck a metal signpost and some telephone poles lying on the ground in landing at the airport, which some neighboring residents have criticized as a hazard to the homes, liquor stores and office buildings that surround it.

Sabri’s Cessna 152 bounced when it touched the ground and stopped only when it struck the post and poles, Police Sgt. Michael Biggs said. Telephone poles are used as barriers to separate some driving areas from airplane areas, Biggs said.

Neither Sabri nor his passenger, Mohammad Gezerfe, 36, of Irvine, was injured, Biggs said.

The Federal Aviation Administration will investigate the incident, which occurred at 1:32 p.m., Biggs said.

Critics have called the airport a difficult one, especially for inexperienced pilots.

The single runway is 2,330 feet long, with 1,822 feet available for landing. The numbers fall short of California’s minimum standards for airports, which require at least 2,450 feet available for both takeoff and landings. The 36-foot-wide runway also is narrower than the state’s 50-foot minimum.

Last October, the Huntington Beach City Council asked the airport owners to make a variety of safety improvements and repairs. The council made the request following three accidents within a month, two involving planes that crashed shortly after takeoff and a third that struck an airport building after running out of runway while landing.