Pilot, 68, Forced to Land Vintage Plane on Beach

A 68-year-old pilot walked away unharmed from his vintage single-engine plane after it dropped 1,000 feet from the sky and skidded 200 feet along the sand in front of two dozen people at Crystal Cove State Park on Sunday.

The pilot, Jack Fleisher of Dana Point, said he was cruising from the Santa Monica Airport during an afternoon of recreational flying on his way to Oceanside when his 1935 Fairchild lost power at about 2:30 p.m. He said he found a clear area of the beach and tried to land.

The engine “just wasn’t working right,” said Fleisher, who has been flying 40 years. “It was losing power until it lost all of its power.”

The Fairchild dropped, smashing its landing gear on the sand and sliding to a stop. Despite the crash landing, Fleisher said he was never frightened.

“The plane glides,” he said. “I knew I would make the beach. I’m just disappointed that the plane was damaged. It was one of a kind.”

The crash amazed a small crowd at Crystal Cove State Park, some of whom ran to the plane and others who ran to get lifeguards.

One spectator, who was on her honeymoon and visiting the beach, said she was so relieved to see Fleisher step safely from the plane that she couldn’t resist embracing him.

“I grabbed him and gave him a hug,” Nancy Kaye of Riverside said. “I had to look in his eyes and make sure he was OK. . . . He was pretty startled.”

State park lifeguard David A. Perry said the plane left Santa Monica airport at 1:30 p.m. and the engine quit an hour later while cruising at about 1,000 feet over the state park just north of Laguna Beach.

“Luckily, he hit a clear area of the beach,” Perry said. “He was pretty shook up, but fortunately he wasn’t injured. He had a successful emergency landing.”

As spectators clustered around the small yellow and blue airplane with a wooden propeller, park rangers warned them to back off because the plane had a fuel leak that might be dangerous.

Park officials said Fleisher was fortunate to have landed at low tide, when the strip of available sand was wider than it would have been an hour later.

“He would have very little chance to land and there might have been more chance of people standing or walking around,” one ranger said.

Kaye said she and her husband had been near the water’s edge when she noticed something was wrong with the plane as it passed above.

“I (heard) the engine slow down and stop,” she said. “I said, ‘The engine died.’ ”

Kaye said her husband yelled for others on the beach to “clear the area” as the plane headed toward the sand. Kaye praised the pilot for gliding the old aircraft safely to a halt.

“This man who just landed was an excellent pilot,” she said. “Can you imagine flying in something like that, landing on the beach and walking away? Pretty spectacular.”

Craig Wallace of Huntington Beach had just finished scuba diving and was washing off his gear when the plane sailed 75 feet overhead and hit the beach with a thud.

“Myself and another guy ran over to the plane and asked him if he was all right,” Wallace said. “He was an older fellow, but he just walked right off the plane. It’s the first time I’ve seen anyone crash.”

Fleisher was advised that FAA regulations require that he take responsibility for moving the aircraft from the beach. Lifeguards tied the plane to chains and dragged it with a tractor from the middle of the beach, where it will remain until Fleisher can make arrangements to have it moved.

Fleisher, a retired New York City schoolteacher, said he purchased the plane three years ago. He said he has a home both in Dana Point and on Long Island. After talking to park officials, another man offered to drive Fleisher to Dana Point so the pilot could make arrangements for the craft.

David Ruger, a state park ranger, said it is rare for a plane to land at Crystal Cove State Park, although military helicopters from El Toro Marine Corps Air Station have occasionally made emergency landings over the past several years.

“To have an airplane crash here is a rare occurrence,” Ruger said. “This is the first time I’ve seen (one) in my 10 years here.”