Carlsbad officials confirmed on Thursday morning that an aircraft had landed on a beach in the North County community.
The plane came down around 7:40 a.m. near Tower 25, just off the 7100 block of Carlsbad Boulevard, according to Carlsbad police. That strip of beach is part of South Carlsbad State Beach and is just south of Poinsettia Lane.
The single-propeller small black plane with purple detailing came down on its belly on a stretch of beach with little shoreline, and, consequently, the waves began to turn the plane around as they came in and ebbed. High tide on Thursday morning was at around 6:30 a.m.
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While nobody was down on the beach near the Piper Pa-28 aircraft, which has the tail number N57355, people quickly began to crowd around 30-40 feet above it on the cliff. A fire truck from Carlsbad was spotted parked on the roadway above the plane.
The plane was flying from Montgomery-Gibbs Executive Airport in San Diego to John Wayne Airport in Orange County when it had to make an emergency landing in the water after reporting engine problems, according to the Federal
Aviation Administration, which will be investigating the incident.
Shortly after 3 p.m., NBC 7 received the following statement from FAA spokesman Tony Molinaro:
Local
A single-engine Piper PA-28 landed in the Pacific Ocean southwest of McClellan-Palomar Airport in Carlsbad, Calif., around 7:45 a.m. local time today after the pilot reported engine problems.
The plane was flying from Montgomery-Gibbs Executive Airport in San Diego to John Wayne Airport in Orange County. Three people were on board. The FAA and NTSB will investigate.
After investigators verify the aircraft registration number at the scene, the FAA will release it (usually on the next business day) on this webpage.
The FAA does not identify people involved in aircraft accidents.
Shortly before 3 p.m., NBC 7 was told by the plane's owner that he thought he knew the cause of the mechanical failure.
“We just found out it was an internal engine failure," Christopher Sluka of Learn to Fly San Diego told NBC 7. "A push rod failed and punched a hole through the crankcase, allowing the oil to come out, resulting in a seized engine. The pilots and passengers did an outstanding job landing in the water, getting out, and swimming to shore, all without injury.”
Three people were aboard the aircraft, which is used for training new pilots, according to the Carlsbad Fire Department. None of those inside the plane were hurt in the landing; all refused to go to the hospital.
California State Parks was managing the emergency landing and investigating the incident. It's expected that at low tide, around 2 p.m. Thursday, workers will be using a bulldozer and tow truck to lift the plane off the beach and onto the tow truck, which will eventually be used to transfer it to another truck that will drive it away.
