Plane Crashes; 4 Walk Away

Four lucky occupants of a rented single-engine airplane walked away with only minor scrapes and bruises early Sunday after their craft crash-landed into the side yard of a home near the Ramona Airport, sheriff’s deputies said.

The single-engine Piper Cherokee, piloted by Eric William Hereth, 44, of Lakeside, plummeted into the yard of a home on Highland Valley Road, causing severe damage to the airplane as well as the garage at the home and several nearby trees, officials said.

Hereth could not be reached for comment Sunday, but the father of a 17-year-old passenger in the plane said he feels extremely fortunate his daughter is still alive.

“I just feel very lucky,” said Vernon Joe Thrasher of El Cajon, whose daughter April walked away from the crash with only a few bruises and a sore back.

“Both April and her cousin said they were asleep in the back of the plane and by the time they woke up, the craft was on the ground,” Thrasher said. “The sheriff’s deputies told me today that I’m just so lucky my daughter is around to tell me what happened.”

Also aboard the plane were 20-year-old Shanda Hereth, daughter of the pilot, and Goodwin Myers, 25, of Ramona, who was treated at Pomerado Hospital for minor injuries, including cuts to his hands.

“You couldn’t see anything,” Myers said of the crash. “We were flying above the fog and then we went down through it into the trees. The whole time, I was just thinking of getting back onto the ground.”

According to reports filed by investigators, the four had flown to a wedding in Northern California and were returning late Saturday to Gillespie Field in Santee about 1:45 a.m. when they were turned away by dense ground fog.

They then headed to nearby Ramona airport, but 5 miles west of their destination the plane apparently ran out of gas and plunged into the yard in the sparsely populated area. No one was home when the plane crashed into the yard, according to reports.

Thrasher said Sunday that Hereth, his brother-in-law, has more than 25 years of flying experience, including time as a helicopter pilot in Vietnam. He said the plane was rented from Coastal Flyers, a flying club in El Cajon.

“He told me he heard the engine sputtering like it was running out of fuel,” Thrasher said. “But it should have had plenty of fuel.”

Thrasher said both he and his daughter still have confidence in Hereth.

“April is my youngest daughter, so this thing hit me pretty hard when she walks in this morning and tells me she’s just been in a plane crash,” he said. “But April said she’d go up with him today if he wanted to go.”