Bad Engine Forces Plane to Land Near Homes

The Fountain Valley pilot of a single-engine plane with mechanical trouble crash-landed on a residential street in Huntington Beach, destroying the plane but walking away with only scrapes.

The plane piloted by 59-year-old Ronald C. Calkins swooped under a power line, touched down between homes and then clipped a small tree and spun around before coming to rest, nose down, against a utility pole, authorities said.

“Under the circumstances, he did a hell of a job,” said Sgt. Bill Meers of the Huntington Beach Police Department. “He’s not injured. He walked away with minor abrasions and scrapes at best.”

Meers said the Cessna was flying from Riverside back home to Long Beach about 7:30 p.m. Monday when the engine began sputtering just west of Disneyland. The pilot told police he was looking for a schoolyard or an open field to land in, but ran out of time.

The plane skidded down the 6100 block of Briarcliff Drive, narrowly missing houses on both sides. It traveled 200 feet before coming to rest. No other injuries were reported. The pilot told police he shut off his fuel tanks before landing to avoid a fire.

Two blocks of Briarcliff Drive were cordoned off as fire crews mopped up spilled airplane fuel. Dozens of spectators came running to see what happened, and many stayed for more than an hour.

The pilot stood across the street from the downed green and white aircraft, occasionally talking on a cell phone and speaking with police. Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board were called in to investigate the incident.

Almon Fackrell was in his upstairs bedroom working on his computer when he heard the plane come down.

“It sounded like a car coming down the street, sliding on its roof,” said Fackrell, 68, a retired aerospace engineer. “I looked out my balcony window and there it was, a plane, leaning up against a light pole in my frontyard.”

Fackrell and other neighbors arrived to help the pilot, but he had already climbed out of the wreckage. The pilot told the crowd he was OK, Fackrell said, and then took out his cell phone and began making calls.