Plane Crash-Lands On Freeway In Oceanside
By: KNBC-TV

OCEANSIDE 6/18/2007---- A small plane made an emergency landing state Route 78 in Oceanside Monday evening, hitting an SUV and slowing traffic to a crawl for hours.

The pilot, Ramone Campbell, 69, said he had taken off from McClellan-Palomar Airport to test the Cessna's recently rebuilt engine. He said he flew north to Ramona and was returning to the airport when the engine started to fail. "I got all kinds of smoke inside the cabin, started losing altitude, started losing power, " Campbell told NBC San Diego. Campbell immediately radioed Palomar Airport for help. "I said at this point, you can say a prayer for me, because I'm going down. There's no way I'm going to stay up." he said.

Campbell said he decided his best chance of survival was to land on the freeway. At about 6:45 p.m., as he came down, cars in the westbound lanes slowed down to make room for him to land. But the driver of one sport utility vehicle did not slow down, Campbell said. The wing of the plane hit the back of that vehicle, injuring the driver. The motorist, 56-year-old Maria Inett Marshall Wilson, was airlifted to a hospital in La Jolla with moderate injuries, CHP Officer Tom Kerns said.

The emergency landing forced the California Highway Patrol to close down both sides of the freeway causing a major traffic backup. Campbell walked away from the crash without injuries. The incident caused a huge backup on Highway 78 for hours. A tow truck was brought in around 8:30 p.m. to remove the plane from the road. Traffic was back to normal by about 9 p.m. Campbell said he has been flying for more than 40 years, and has never had a problem before. The CHP said because of the unique circumstances of the incident, it's still unclear if anyone will be cited. The FAA is also investigating.

Two killed, one missing after plane crashes off of Carlsbad coast
By: SARAH WILKINS and PAUL SISSON – North County Times

CARLSBAD 4/29/2007---- A four-seat Cessna airplane crashed off the coast of Carlsbad shortly after taking off from McClellan-Palomar Airport Sunday morning, killing two female passengers and leaving a third male passenger missing, authorities said.

The San Diego County Medical Examiner's office did not release the names of the dead or missing by late Sunday night. According to data from the Federal Aviation Administration, the Cessna was registered to a man named Leroy F. Kochert, who has a Phoenix address.

A Coast Guard crew suspended its search for the missing passenger at 6 p.m. Sunday, and the crash is under investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board, officials said. A spokesman with the Federal Aviation Administration said the plane; a propeller-driven Cessna model 182Q built in 1979, left McClellan-Palomar Airport at 9:45 a.m., headed west, and then crashed into the ocean at approximately 9:50 a.m. The crash occurred in deep water about one mile from shore.

An FAA spokesman said he would not speculate about the cause of the crash. Weather officials said a heavy marine layer blanketed the coast at the time of the crash.

Dave Wagner, seasonal supervisor of Oceanside's lifeguard department, said Sunday that he arrived at the wreck about 10 minutes after it was reported. "They were able to locate two of the deceased," and put them aboard a fishing vessel that had arrived at the site of the crash, Giles said. Chapman assessed the victims and pronounced them both dead, Giles said.

Shortly after lifeguard teams arrived, two cutters and a helicopter with the U.S. Coast Guard arrived and continued to search for the Cessna's third passenger but the search was unsuccessful and has now been suspended.

Allen Kenitzer, a spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration, said Sunday that the crash will be investigated by his agency and the National Transportation Safety Board. "The NTSB looks for the accident's cause, and the FAA looks at records for the plane and for the pilot," Kenitzer said, adding that investigations can take up to one year.

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