2 Planes Lose Power, Crash; 4 Aboard OK

Four occupants escaped serious injury Saturday when engine trouble caused two light planes to crash within an hour of each other in the San Fernando Valley, authorities said.

One plane crashed into a power pole and tumbled to earth; the second came down on a golf course. The National Transportation Safety Board said it is investigating the cause of both incidents.

A single engine Cessna returning to Burbank Airport at about 10:45 a.m. lost power and crashed into a power pole near Foothill Boulevard and Yarnell Street in Sylmar, officials said. The student pilot, a woman in her 30s, escaped with only abrasions after the plane hit the ground and broke into pieces, said Los Angeles Police Sgt. Robert Williams of the Foothill Division.

The pilot was attempting a 50-mile solo flight as part of her required training, according to Williams. When the plane’s engine began to lose power, the pilot attempted to divert to Van Nuys Airport, then to Whiteman Airpark, Williams said.

A short time later, a second plane crash-landed in a sand trap on the 15th hole of the Hansen Dam Golf Course. The twin-engine Beechcraft 55, carrying three people, had taken off from Whiteman Airpark in Pacoima and was in the air only two minutes before experiencing engine problems, said Federal Aviation Administration duty officer Diana Joubert. The occupants were identified as pilot Gary Didden, 51, his wife, Donna, 51, and their 15-year-old daughter. None was injured.

“I didn’t have an alternative,” Gary Didden told KNBC news at the crash site. “I couldn’t make it back to the airport.”

A golf course employee said golfers were stunned by the crash.

“It scared the heck out of them,” said golf starter Jerry Carlson. “They just froze in their tracks. They couldn’t believe what was happening.”

But the golfers got back to their games before long, he said.

“They’re playing around it,” said Carlson. “They don’t let anything stop them.”