Pilot Lands Safely in Parsley Field

A Mission Hills pilot made an emergency landing in a parsley field west of Moorpark Monday after his student mistakenly shut the plane’s engine off and the pilot was unable to restart it, officials said.

Robert Reed, 25, said he and a female student were practicing emergency landing procedures when the mishap occurred near California 118 west of Moorpark around 4:45 p.m.

“There was a miscommunication, and she shut down the engine on me,” he said. “I feel fortunate everything worked out.”

No one was injured, and the Cessna 150 was not damaged, although its wheel struts knocked over several sprinklers in the parsley field, Sheriff’s Deputy Scott Miller said.

Reed works for a flight school based at Van Nuys Airport.