Small Plane With Dead Engine Lands ‘Perfectly’ in Coast Highway Traffic

About 40 minutes into what was to be a sightseeing flight Sunday afternoon, Edward Dietrich’s light plane sputtered and slowly died, forcing him to choose an open lane on Coast Highway south of Corona del Mar to touch down between surprised motorists.

By all accounts, Dietrich, 59, of Placentia did a fine job bringing the Grumman Tiger four-seater in for a smooth landing in the northbound lanes about 1:10 p.m.

After coasting to a stop, Dietrich and his two passengers--nephew Roger Powlison and Mike Tedman, who are visiting California from Howell, Mich.--jumped out and pushed the single-engine plane out of the traffic lanes. No one was hurt.

The crank holding the plane’s prop had probably broken, causing the engine failure, Dietrich said, adding that none of the three men panicked during descent to the highway. “You don’t think about things like that when it’s happening. But my knees are a little weak right now,” he said.

The landing itself was pretty smooth--made possible by a break in the traffic and cars on both sides of the highway moving well out of the way. Dietrich added that the experience hasn’t soured his love for flying. “Not at all. In fact, if it was flyable and they’d let me, I’d fly it out of here,” he said.

The trio set off from Corona Municipal Airport about 12:30 p.m. Sunday, flew over Lake Elsinore and then crossed the mountains before turning north just past the coastline. Tedman was busily snapping photographs and Powlison was at the controls when the engine cut out.

“We started losing rpms. There was a real bad shudder and that was it,” said Powlison, adding that Dietrich took over the controls of his plane immediately while Tedman got back in his seat and strapped on his shoulder harness. “We were pretty lucky,” he added, “because 10 minutes before the engine quit, we were over the mountains.”

Dietrich cruised over a few cars and weaved past a couple of others before finding his open spot. The closest call came near a utility pole as they rolled to a stop, he said.

In the southbound lanes, state park ranger Richard Robbins couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

‘Pulled It Off Perfectly’

“He just came in right over the top of (the traffic). There was an opening and he sat it right down, pulled it off perfectly,” Robbins said. “Then these guys jump out and push it off the road. I was going to set up a flare pattern (to divert traffic), but they handled it.” Robbins, a ranger at Crystal Cove State Beach, said the landing looked good. “He did an excellent job. It was smooth, like it was rehearsed,” he said.

Dietrich’s son, a mechanic at Tallmantz Aviation at John Wayne Airport, would later help them haul off the plane by removing the wings and lifting the craft onto a truck. The engine will have to be removed and repaired and then he will fly the plane back to Corona, Dietrich said.

The 10-year-old plane was purchased in September and had undergone an engine overhaul two years ago, Dietrich said. He added that he had had no problems with it before and had never had to make an emergency landing in any plane.

As curious motorists slowed down to gawk at the grounded Grumman, Tedman and Powlison said that their adrenaline was flowing but that no one on board ever really felt their lives were in danger. In fact the whole episode, Powlison joked, was “great fun.”