A small plane slammed into a power pole and crashed onto an Oceanside street Saturday, rupturing a sewer line and sending thousands of gallons of raw sewage shooting into the air.
Police Sgt. Kelan Poorman says the single-engine Cessna Skyhawk was only a dozen feet off the ground when it hit a support pole for overhead electrical lines and went down a half-mile from Oceanside Municipal Airport at about 10:44 this morning.
The crash site was near a heavily populated residential area, a sewage pump station and Route 76, which is the town's major highway but nobody on the ground was hurt and there was no fire, Poorman said.
A sewage line at the pumping station was damaged and spewed 25,000 gallons of raw sewage about 40-feet in the air.
The 24-year-old pilot was trapped in the wreckage for a time, his 18-year-old passenger managed to get out by himself. Gallons of raw sewage covered emergency crews as they tried to rescue the two men. Poorman says crews contained the sewage before it could reach nearby homes but everybody on the scene had to be decontaminated.
The plane left Gillespie Field airport in El Cajon and was heading to Torrence Municipal Airport, Gregor said. The engine was torn from the fuselage and landed about 30 feet from the plane, Jeanette said. Another witness told Jeanette the plane circled the airfield at least twice before crashing.
Witnesses said they saw the plane flying at rooftop level and "we're hearing that it just barely missed a vehicle" before the crash, Poorman said. As bad as this looks, it could have been a lot worse.
"Had they continued on their path, they would have been in the area of a residential area and some commercial businesses," Poorman said.
The Cessna 172 is registered to Fly CFA, a flight school in El Cajon. Poorman says it's unclear why the plane was flying so low. The pilot had not radioed any reports of trouble to local control towers.
One man is listed in serious to critical condition and the other is said to be in good condition.
