Splash Landing

A pilot in distress landed his single-engine propeller plane on the waterline of this city’s main beach Tuesday morning as surfers and joggers stared in amazement.

“He ran out of room and ideas at the same time,” Huntington Beach Police Lt. Dan Johnson said of Long Beach pilot Tom West, but amateur aviators who gathered at the scene later in the morning marveled at the adept landing that left pilot and plane unscathed.

West said the Cessna 152 II lost oil pressure and its engine began to seize up as he followed the Orange County coastline south toward Montgomery Airport in San Diego after taking off from Long Beach’s airfield.

The 30-year-old pilot and flight instructor thought for a moment of heading inland 6 miles for an emergency landing at John Wayne Airport, but second thoughts about his engine persuaded him to land on the sand of Surf City instead.

“If I fell short of the airport, I was going to go down in a residential area or at least a more crowded area, so I figured the beach was best,” said a sheepish West, who was surprised at the reporters and television cameras that quickly descended at the site of the impromptu landing near Beach Boulevard.

Bodysurfer Tom Levers was walking toward the water when he caught a glimpse of something “coming down at a weird angle” out of the sky. He was shocked when he realized he was watching a plane coasting in.

“There was no sound at all, nothing,” Levers told reporters, adding that the plane touched down right at the water’s edge, with waves lapping at the landing gear as West brought the craft in with a few bounces and skids.

West was en route to San Diego to pick up medical specimens to be ferried back to local hospitals, so the ice chests that he uses to store the perishable cargo were empty when his plane sputtered out.

“It’s not a far trip, but planes are faster than going through all the traffic on the way down,” West said of his job.

Huntington Beach police officers and bystanders helped West push the disabled plane up the sand to a parking lot, where it awaited inspection by federal aviation officials who take note of all plane mishaps.

The beach’s usual crowd of surfers, retirees and tourists surveyed the odd scene early Tuesday, and several stopped to pat West on the back for his skills.

Because there were no injuries, the mood at the scene soon turned jovial. Lt. Johnson quipped that the allure of Surf City was to blame: “I think the pilot saw 5-foot waves with good shape and just couldn’t pass it by.”

West said his instincts just took over.

“It happened so fast and I didn’t really think much about what was happening except to get the plane down in one piece,” said West, a pilot for 10 years. “You just fall back on your training.”

West’s supervisors were glad to see their plane and pilot intact when they arrived at the scene, and they soon turned their attention to another problem: the shipment of blood and tissue waiting down south. West, eager to dodge more attention, offered a solution.

“I’ll jump in another plane if you let me,” he said. “I’m ready to go.”