Engine Trouble Forces Private Plane to Land Near Railroad Tracks

A plane with engine trouble disrupted the morning commute Wednesday along Esperanza Road in Yorba Linda after its pilot guided the single-engine Cessna to a dirt strip next to the street.

No one was hurt in the incident, which took place just after 7:30 a.m. when Harris Knox Butler III of Wichita, Kan., took off from Fullerton Municipal Airport. He was homeward-bound with one passenger, Chad Damon Thorne, also of Wichita.

Almost immediately, the plane began experiencing engine problems, possibly related to contaminated fuel, according to Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Jerry Snyder.

“The fuel was contaminated, probably with water,” he said. “It’s a real problem. . . . It makes the plane come out of the sky.”

How the contamination occurred is being investigated, Snyder said.

Butler did not think he could get the craft safely back to the Fullerton airport, police said. Instead, he landed the 33-year-old plane on a patch of dirt along a railroad right of way. The airplane sustained no damage. Butler declined to comment on the incident. It was unclear who owns the aircraft.

The emergency landing was the talk of nearby restaurants and gas stations, but because the plane touched down in an unpopulated area, few people saw it.

Tim Nguyen, who works at a tire store, said he was driving to work when he saw the plane by the side of the road, surrounded by officers from the Brea Police Department, which patrols Yorba Linda.

“It was just a small plane with one engine,” Nguyen said. “I couldn’t stop. I just went slow and then [when I got to work] I told my boss, ‘I saw the airplane.’ ”