San Diego : 2 Men Survive Crash at Montgomery Field

A single-engine plane missed a runway and crash-landed at fog-shrouded Montgomery Field Wednesday night. The plane’s two occupants suffered only minor injuries.

Pilot Dean Holt of La Jolla and passenger Doug Gale of San Diego were treated at Sharp Memorial Hospital for facial cuts and bruises.

Holt’s 1959 Beechcraft Bonanza struck the ground 150 feet to the side of the runway and skidded into nearby brush, said Gordon Yen, Montgomery Field’s tower manager. A small fire on the demolished plane’s left wing was quickly extinguished by airport firefighters, he said.

He said the control tower had advised Holt of low visibility and to anticipate a missed approach as the plane came in for an instrument landing at 8:25 p.m. A helicopter and one of two planes that had attempted to land at the airport minutes earlier were unable to land, Yen said.

Holt, a retired concert pianist, has been a pilot for about 50 years and used to fly his plane to concerts, said his wife, Denice. She said the two men were returning from Arizona when the crash occurred.

She said her husband, who was meeting with Federal Aviation Administration investigators Thursday afternoon, told her that the fog was low-lying. He could see the airport lights from the sky, but when the plane neared the runway, visibility suddenly decreased and it was too late to pull back up.

Tom Raines, airport operations supervisor, said visibility was one-sixteenth of a mile at the time of the accident, but that the decision to land was up to the pilot.

He said the airport was closed after the accident until 6 a.m. Thursday because of the possibility that parts from the wrecked plane were on the runway. The FAA investigation is continuing, Raines said.