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Plane Lands in Field; 2 Men Unhurt

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TIMES STAFF WRITER

While on a training flight from San Diego to Camarillo shortly before 3 p.m. Monday, Jim Stewart experienced what every pilot fears--a sudden engine failure.

“We were just going along and then ‘pop,’ we heard a noise, the engine stopped and we saw the fire,” said Stewart, 35, a Cardiff resident who was on his final day of training before earning his pilot’s instrumentation certificate. “I didn’t panic, though. The instructor took over and he knew exactly what to do.”

Instructor Daniel Wise of Hemet-based American Flyers put the plane, which was cruising at about 4,000 feet, into a steep dive to extinguish the flames and gain enough speed to glide in for a landing.

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The pair also had to roll down the windows to air out the small Cessna 170, which was quickly filling with smoke.

Having gained enough speed by the maneuver, Wise, 25, landed the plane in a fallow cilantro field owned by Valley Farms near the intersection of Moorpark and Read roads.

Everything would have been fine had the field not been recently plowed and watered.

The front landing strut got caught in loose dirt, flipping the plane onto its top, where it finally came to a rest.

“If the field hadn’t been like this, we’d have been here waxing the plane,” Stewart said. “Except for that it was a smooth and quite pleasant emergency landing.”

The plane was badly damaged, and neither Stewart nor Wise knew whether it could be salvaged.

The engine housing was ripped apart, the struts and wings bent, the belly burned and broken, and the tail squashed like an accordion.

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Crews from the Ventura County Fire Department who responded to the crash found both men standing in the field with their hands on their hips and smiles on their faces.

Neither was injured, and the only thing Stewart could find wrong was the mud streaked on his pants and shirt.

Stewart, a licensed pilot, was earning certification that would allow him to fly with instruments only.

He recently took a job in Palo Alto and said he will be commuting there by plane from home.

Despite the crash, Stewart said he is eager to continue his training.

“I’ve got two more landings to make today, and I kind of want to get them done with,” he said while looking at his watch. “To tell you the truth this little accident is really starting to cramp my style.”

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