BURBANK : Pilot, Passenger Injured in Mishap

The pilot of a small airplane and his passenger suffered minor injuries when he aborted a takeoff from Burbank Airport and crashed through a fence into a parked car, airport officials said Monday.

No one on the ground was hurt. The pilot, Geoffrey Ely, 38, of Sun Valley and his passenger, Arnie Shanblan, 41, of Hollywood were taken to St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank, Burbank Fire Department officials said.

The accident occurred Sunday at about 6:45 p.m. Ely took off to the south and had just gotten airborne when he began to have mechanical problems with the two-seat Cessna 172, airport spokesman Victor Gill said.

Ely tried to land the plane on the runway but ran into a chain-link fence at the southern end of the airport, Gill said. The plane broke through the fence, crossed Empire Avenue and stopped after crashing into a car , he said.