HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. (KABC) — A small plane made an emergency landing on the sand at Huntington Beach shortly after takeoff on Monday. Now, the pilot and his 16-year-old passenger are talking out about what led as much as the landing.
The Piper PA-28 Cherokee plane made the emergency landing at Huntington State Beach close to Magnolia Street and Pacific Coast Highway simply after 2 p.m.
“Cherokee 4521 Romeo, Mayday, Mayday, Mayday. We’ve lost our engine,” the pilot was heard reporting to the management tower. “We’re just coming up over the shoreline, and we will be putting it down on the beach. Just in front of the stacks.”
It occurred about two miles south of the pier, which is busier than traditional as a result of 2026 U.S. Open of Surfing.
There have been two individuals on board at the time of the crash — the pilot and his 16-year-old nephew. No accidents have been reported, together with the bystanders who have been on the seaside in the course of the landing.
Eyewitness News spoke with the pilot and his passenger. The plane was geared up with a digital camera, which caught video of the emergency landing.
“I think we’re extremely fortunate,” stated pilot Mike Bremner.
Bremner stated his pre-flight checks have been regular and the takeoff was regular.
They took off from Santa Ana’s John Wayne Airport and have been headed to Van Nuys. When they hit about 1,000 toes, Bremner stated one thing went unsuitable with the engine. It all occurred inside 5 minutes of takeoff.
“When that happens, we run by memory. A very quick check to see if we can get the engine restarted. Not a lot much different than in your car. Pump the accelerator, check the ignition, switch tanks, in our case. Given that we were only at 1,000 feet, we immediately made sure the plane was flying at such a speed that it would glide the farthest,” Bremner defined. “When I realized that it wasn’t going to start again, I looked to my right, I saw the beach, the winds were relatively light, and we set it up for landing and we touched down.”
“He’s like, ‘Griffin, we’re going down,'” 16-year-old Griffin Bremner stated. “The plane starts to stutter a little bit, and the propeller slows down and whatnot, and then he starts steering towards the beach.”
It was Griffin’s first time flying together with his uncle.
Bremner stated that whereas all pilots are educated for these kind of emergencies, he feels extremely grateful that he and his nephew, who’s visiting from Canada, have been in a position to stroll away from the landing and that they have been in a position to land in such a large open space.
“Grateful is the word for it. I mean, all pilots train for a forced landing. Every — from private right up to airline transport — you plan for an emergency landing. But you never really know what you’re going to do until it happens,” Bremner stated.
Now, the duo says it is an sudden journey to the seaside that they are going to always remember.
“I actually grabbed a rock from under the wheel to remember the incident,” Griffin stated.
“That’s my nephew. I still have to tell his father what happened today, my brother. And his mother,” Bremner stated with fun.
The FAA will now work to analyze what precisely went unsuitable with the engine that led to the incident.
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