3 Escape Injury as Plane Lands in Fullerton Street

Three people escaped serious injury Thursday evening when their single engine plane lost power, clipped a building and made a crash landing in the street near Fullerton Airport.

As he lost power, the pilot “tried to pick it up, but the engine did not respond,” Fullerton Fire Department Capt. Dale Weckler said.

The pilot, Jack Northrop, 51, of Whittier, lost a landing gear when his Cessna 210 hit the top of the Nutone building on Raymer Avenue, tearing 20 feet out of the roof, authorities said.

Northrop then tried to land the craft about 200 yards away, according to Fullerton Fire Capt. Lou Castle, by flying over nearby railroad tracks and under telephone wires. However, the tip of the left wing was sheared off by a telephone pole before he could set the craft down in the middle of Artesia Avenue, near Pritchard Avenue.

Northrop and two passengers--his parents, Orville and Lyla Northrop, both 87, of Placentia--were helped from the plane by Don McGahey, 29, a carpenter who lives a few hundred feet from where plane came to rest.

All three were treated and released from Martin Luther Hospital in Anaheim.