Trapped 10 Hours in Wreckage : Rescue: A police helicopter spotted the driver on an embankment and sent help.

A 31-year-old man stuck in a car that had plunged down a steep embankment off Mullholland Drive early Thursday was rescued nearly 10 hours later after a police helicopter spotted the wreck, authorities said.

Two Fire Department rescue helicopters hoisted Edward Watts from his vehicle, which had gone off an embankment in the 16900 block of Mulholland Drive in Topanga State Park about 4 a.m., Police Department spokesman Bill Frio said.

The plunge down the embankment from a dirt portion of the highway apparently occurred south of the Encino Reservoir in the Santa Monica Mountains.

Watts apparently had been stuck in the vehicle, a four-wheel-drive Chevrolet Blazer, for nearly 10 hours when a police helicopter on a routine flight passed over the wreckage, saw the car and called for help, Frio said.

Pilot Randy Champe was on routine patrol about 350 feet above the area, looking for abandoned or stolen cars in the tree-covered hills when he saw the blue Chevrolet about 100 yards down the hill and a man waving his arms out the window.

“The Blazer was all torn up. It was just a mess,” Champe said, adding that the vehicle was perched at a 45-degree angle, facing straight down into a ravine.

Champe and his partner radioed for a police car and an ambulance, and a patrol officer was the first to arrive at the scene. He climbed down the hill to check on Watts.

Fire Department rescuers rappelled down the bluff to reach Watts, Champe said.

Watts was taken to Northridge Hospital Medical Center, where he was in good condition, Fire Department spokesman Greg Acevedo said.