‘We’re cooked!’ Small plane makes emergency landing on Huntington State Beach

An uncle and his nephew had a harrowing experience Monday afternoon when the engine on their two-seat plane died, forcing them to make an emergency landing on Huntington State Beach.

Mike Bremner took off in a Piper PA-28 Cherokee airplane from Orange County’s John Wayne Airport just before 2 p.m. Minutes later, the engine cut out, and he was unable to get it started again.

His nephew Griffin Bremner said he felt the plane stutter and the propellers slow down, then his uncle turned to him and said, “Griffin, we’re cooked!”

Fortunately, Mike quickly came up with a plan.

“Once we realized we were getting too low, we had to focus on landing, and I looked to my right and there was a beautiful big beach,” said Mike, “so we pointed at an empty spot on the beach and landed.”

A Piper PA-28 Cherokee landed safely on the beach at about 2 p.m. just south of Magnolia Street in Huntington Beach.

(Evan Schaben / For The Times)

A couple walking along the beach sprinted out of the way as the small plane dropped down, Griffin said.

The aircraft hit the sand and rolled for about 100 feet before Mike made a hard turn, forcing the aircraft to brake and enabling the pair to emerge unscathed.

Personnel from California State Parks responded to the emergency beach landing in between Brookhurst and Magnolia streets, and will work with the Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board to investigate what went wrong, a spokesperson said in a statement.

“The pilot indicated they were flying from [the] Santa Ana [airport] to Van Nuys Airport and suffered engine failure approximately 5 minutes into the flight,” the spokesperson said. “There were no injuries reported on the ground and only partial closure of the area surrounding the plane.”

Mike Bremner piloted the plane onto the sand at Huntington State Beach on Monday afternoon.

(Evan Schaben / For the Times)

Mike is the founder of nonprofit organization Elder Abuse Airforce, which is based out of John Wayne Airport and uses adventurous airplane journeys to raise awareness of financial scams targeting seniors. He said Monday’s near miss would not stop him from getting back in the air.

“I fly corporate jets for a living and have utmost confidence in aircraft and the way they’re maintained,” he said. “This was an unfortunate experience, but I’ll absolutely be flying again.”

Evan Schaben is a freelance photographer.