Huntington Beach Man Survives : Pilot Crash-Lands on Highway in Wisconsin

A Huntington Beach pilot who once crashed in a Canoga Park neighborhood was forced to crash-land Friday on a highway in the town of Waukesha, authorities said.

Richard Cabrinha, 55, who escaped serious injury, told authorities that he was flying from Sioux Falls, S.D., to Oshkosh for the annual rally of the Experimental Aircraft Assn. when his single-engine plane developed mechanical problems and began losing power at about 9 a.m.

Wing Grazed Sign

As Cabrinha, a former Air Force pilot, brought the plane closer to the ground, the aircraft’s wing grazed a road sign and hit the left side of a car driven by Roger Woelfel of New Berlin. The impact smashed a car window.

“There’s not that much to tell, really,” Woelfel said. “I was driving down the highway in the right lane, and I glanced out my side mirror. Then I saw this plane not more than 50 feet from me.”

“I pulled away, ducked and jerked the car a little because I knew something was going to happen,” he said.

Crashed in 1985

It was at least the second crash in the last four years for Cabrinha, 55. His Piper Comanche 250 developed engine trouble late one afternoon in December, 1985, and crashed in a Canoga Park neighborhood. Cabrinha said the plane’s oil pressure dropped suddenly, the engine began to vibrate severely and smoke began to fill the cockpit.

The area contained several schools.

Cabrinha said he tried to avoid hitting children by directing his plane toward an alley. His plane crashed just after it ran into utility wires.

“All I could think about was not hitting anybody,” he said at the time.

He was not injured in the Canoga Park crash.

Cabrinha could not be reached for comment about Friday’s crash landing.

His stepson, Rob McVeigh of Huntington Beach, said he had not heard about the accident.