Plane Crashes After Narrowly Missing Costco

A twin-engine plane narrowly missed a crowded Costco store and crashed into a Westlake Village cemetery Saturday morning, coming to rest a few feet from a mausoleum containing hundreds of crypts.

The two men on board the plane suffered broken legs and other injuries. There were no injuries on the ground.

The crash occurred about 10:20 a.m. at Pierce Bros. Valley Oaks Memorial Park and Mortuary on Lindero Canyon Road. At the time, there were no visitors at the cemetery, and authorities reported no damage to any interment sites.

Witnesses said the plane, which had departed from Van Nuys Airport, just missed the Costco store and then nearly brushed hedges surrounding a memorial garden for the victims of the crash of an Alaska Airlines jetliner off the Ventura County coast three years ago.

“First I heard the engine, and then I looked over and saw a small aircraft heading right into the Costco roof,” Los Angeles County Firefighter Layne Contreras said. But the plane missed the roof. “He was able to pull about 100 feet, but then it rolled to the right and disappeared from sight. Then I heard a loud impact.”

Contreras was standing next to his company’s fire engine outside Albertsons supermarket on Lindero Canyon Road when the plane flew over. He immediately alerted his crew, which was inside shopping, and they rushed to the crash scene a block away.

The firefighters found the two men, ages 51 and 45, conscious and talking, in the front seats of the fuselage, the only part of the aircraft that remained intact. The wings, tail assembly and engines were torn off in the crash.

Investigators with the Federal Aviation Administration, who arrived Saturday afternoon, declined to identify the men or say where they live. Federal officials said the men did not file a flight plan, which is not required, and had not told airport employees where they were headed.

The men told firefighters they thought the four-seat Piper Seneca had clipped a retaining wall at the Costco store and possibly lost an engine in midair. Although authorities said neither had occurred, engine failure is suspected. A report on the official cause will be released in several weeks.

Los Angeles County authorities said the men were in surgery Saturday night at Northridge Hospital Medical Center and were expected to fully recover. Both suffered leg fractures, bumps, cuts and scrapes.

In another stroke of luck, Contreras said the landing might have been softened by a large pile of soft dirt and wood chippings that the plane hit before skidding about 150 feet toward the mausoleum.

“This is amazing. These guys are extremely lucky,” Fire Inspector Edward Osorio said. “Just inside the park, they barely missed two large eucalyptus trees that definitely would have killed them.”

The plane came to rest between two large sycamore trees just outside the mausoleum.