With Luck, Gamblers Land Safely

A pleasure flight to Las Vegas turned out to be a bigger gamble than expected for two people who escaped injury during an emergency airplane landing Saturday near the Van Norman Bypass Reservoir.

Jeffrey Cogan, 27, and his passenger, Sharon Coleman, 27, were heading back from a day in the casinos when their single-engine plane lost power about 3:30 p.m. several miles short of their destination, Van Nuys Airport.

Cogan, an experienced pilot who said he has been flying since he was 15, radioed for help but soon realized that the plane, a Beechcraft Debonair owned by his father, would never make it to the airfield.

“I was confident,” said Cogan, a second-year law student at the McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento. Coleman, a manager at a Ralphs grocery store in Simi Valley, acknowledged being terrified.

Gliding the craft down from about 4,000 feet, Cogan eyed a flat, dirt field near the reservoir in Granada Hills. The plane hit the ground at about 75 m.p.h., Cogan said, and halted 100 yards later.

The aircraft sustained no damage, and both Cogan and Coleman stepped from the cockpit unscathed.

Federal Aviation Administration officials were investigating the incident.

“At least I learned how to play craps,” said Coleman, who had suggested they fly to Las Vegas so she could gain some gambling experience before leaving next week on a cruise to the Caribbean. “We accomplished that much.”