Plane Lands on Road After Engine Quits : Pilot Uninjured, Driver Hurt as Wing Hits Car

A single-engine plane slammed into a car on Sweeetwater Road Monday after it made an emergency landing when its engine conked out.

The pilot was unhurt and the driver of the car escaped serious injury. The plane skidded to a halt several hundred feet down the road after the crash, California Highway Patrol spokesman Bob Melton said.

The pilot, Robert V. Depuy, 75, of Ramona, was flying from Brown Field to Ramona when the plane developed engine trouble at 10:10 a.m., said Audrey Schutte, aviation investigator for the National Transportation Safety Board. The engine quit while he was trying to reach Montgomery Field.

Depuy was able to maneuver the plane to a landing on Sweetwater Road just north of Blossom Lane, where Sweetwater Road is four lanes wide.

The plane was able to avoid hitting one car but the tip of the left wing smashed the windshield of a car driven by Diane Marissa Deemer, 21, of Spring Valley.

“She saw the plane at the last moment and leaned over . . . when the plane was going to strike the vehicle. Part of the wing tip entered the car,” Melton said. The end of the wing was torn off.

After hitting the car, Depuy, who has 41 years of flying experience, was able to maintain control of the plane until it came to a halt about 200 feet down the road, Melton said.

CHP officers said the landing could have been disastrous if it happened during rush-hour traffic. “Traffic conditions were very light at the time,” said officer Edward Sarinas. “There were only two vehicles on the highway going northbound. If he would have landed three hours earlier, he would have crashed.”

Deemer was taken to Kaiser Permanente Hospital, where she was reported in good condition with facial and head cuts, hospital spokesman Jim McBride said.

A quarter-mile section of Sweetwater Road was closed from 10:20 a.m. to 11:28 a.m., Melton said.