The chief pilot for the Huntington Beach Police Department was credited for helping a small plane make an emergency landing without a scartch.
The Cessna 177 Cardinal made a distress call at around 9:30 p.m. Thursday, with the plane’s pilot saying it’s having engine problems.
Jason Poulos, the police helicopter pilot for Huntington Beach police, said he was patrolling in the air when he heard the call.
“We heard a pilot come over air traffic control frequency,” Poulos said. “We immediately staged emergency resources in the area.”
The chief pilot said he worked with the air traffic control tower at John Wayne Airport where the plane was trying to land.
But when Poulos realized the small plane was not going to make it, he made sure the pilot had a wide, open space on the sand.
“We stay cleared area a wide birth in case they needed it but we were able 800 feet over them,” Poulos explained. “I’m just glad we were in the right place at the right time, and that we were able to provide the assistance that we could.”
Two people on the Cessna plane were uninjured and unscathed, according to city officials.
Although the plane’s owner hopes to get it off the sand and fly back to John Wayne, the FAA was in the process of determining the best and safest way to get the plane back.
The Thursday night incident was the third small aircraft emergency that happened in Southern California in the past two weeks.