Emergency Landing Is the Talk of Orange County

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

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

Almost immediately after takeoff, 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. How the contamination occurred is still being investigated, Snyder said.

Butler did not think he could get the plane safely back to the Fullerton airport, according to police. Instead, he guided the 33-year-old plane to a patch of dirt along a railroad right of way. The airplane suffered no damage in the landing. Butler declined to comment on the incident.

It was unclear who owns the aircraft.

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

Tim Nguyen, who works at a nearby 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.’ ”