Expectant Mother Survives Plane Crash

A seven-months pregnant Port Hueneme woman surprised rescuers Saturday when she walked away unscathed from the wreckage of a plane she had been piloting until it ran out of gas over Westlake Village.

Christine Newman, 35, was flying a single-engine Grumman plane, on the way from San Diego County to Camarillo Airport, shortly after 4 p.m. when the fuel ran out, said Capt. Lon Myers of the Los Angeles County Fire Department.

She tried to make an emergency landing on lightly traveled Lindero Canyon Road in Westlake Village, but the plane clipped a light standard four feet off the ground, he said. The plane cartwheeled 200 feet before plunging 25 feet down an embankment.

“I was amazed,” said Myers, who was called to the scene. “I thought we were going to have someone very injured by looking at the plane. She did very well.”

Newman, a dental hygienist and flight instructor, was hanging upside down in the plane when the dust settled. She unhooked her seat belt and climbed out.

“Her head had to be in the dirt. The top of the airplane was crunched,” Myers said.

She was taken to Westlake Medical Center for observation and was released. Hospital attendants said both mother-to-be and unborn infant were uninjured.

Newman was not taking calls Saturday night after she arrived home. But the message she left on her answering machine sounded rather sheepish:

“Yes I really am OK. And yes, I really feel like a fool. I’m resting now and I’m not taking any calls. Thanks for your concern.”

Steve Knight, who works at Camarillo Airport, said the pilot is a “very knowledgeable, bright, articulate lady. She is quite capable of flying her airplane.”