Countywide : 2 Airplanes Involved in Separate Mishaps

In separate incidents Friday, a single-engine airplane struck a chain-link fence while landing at Fullerton Municipal Airport and a light plane made an emergency landing on a dirt road in Orange.

No injuries were reported in either incident, although in Fullerton, the propeller of the Archer Cherokee four-seater sustained minor damage, Fullerton Fire Department Capt. Ken Kizziar said.

The pilot, Patricia Garfield of Antioch, Calif., told firefighters that she was unfamiliar with the runway and had misjudged her landing, Kizziar said.

Garfield, flying with a passenger, landed too far down the runway, running off the pavement and onto a grassy area before the airplane hit the fence, Kizziar said. A damage estimate was not immediately available.

Several accidents have occurred recently at the Fullerton airport. A pilot and passenger died last Dec. 17 after their airplane ran out of fuel and struck a Buena Park warehouse while attempting to make an emergency landing at the airport.

In Orange, a Piper PA-16 built in 1948 made an emergency landing at about 1 p.m. on an uncompleted portion of Jamboree Road just north of Santiago Canyon Road.

The pilot, Bob Kelly, 48, of San Diego, said he had taken off an hour earlier from San Diego County’s Montgomery Field and was taking a pleasure flight over Orange County when his engine stalled, forcing him to land. The plane was not damaged.

Kelly theorized that his engine stalled because of water in the fuel, noting that he still had 42 gallons left when he was forced to land. Kelly said he planned to remove the plane’s wings so that it could be trucked back to San Diego. The plane, he said, belongs to his nephew, who bought it only last week.