Lost Pilot Safely Merges in Coast Highway Traffic

Through the large bay windows of her Laguna Beach gallery, Pam Ludwig is used to watching weekend visitors drive down South Coast Highway. But few are in an airplane.

As Ludwig and others looked on in amazement, a small plane made an emergency landing on a stretch of the highway--one of two aviation mishaps in Orange County on Saturday morning.

“All of sudden we see this plane coasting by, and the two people inside are waving at everybody,” said Ludwig, director of Joan Irvine Smith Fine Arts. “It looked like the beginning of a parade.”

Nobody was hurt in the landing, though traffic was blocked along South Coast Highway for about an hour, according to police.

Authorities identified the pilot as Ray Husted, 81, and his passenger as Darin Bauer, 22, both of Santa Ana.

Husted told police the pair had taken off in the home-built, single-engine craft from an airport near Murrieta earlier in the day. They got lost on their way back and decided to land at the site because the plane was running low on fuel, police said.

“Luckily, the pilot was able to avoid all traffic when he landed his aircraft,” Laguna Beach Police Sgt. Jason Kravetz said.

An officer first spotted the small plane flying northbound about 40 feet above Pacific Coast Highway near Nyes Place, Kravetz said.

“The pilot and passenger were signaling to the officer that they were in distress,” he said. Shortly after, the airplane landed on the 1500 block of the highway near the Surf and Sand Hotel.

According to Ludwig, the airplane was so small that it took up only one lane of traffic.

“There were cars going by on the opposite lane, cars behind him,” she said. “It was quite interesting.”

It was one of two successful emergency landings on Saturday.

Just as Husted was touching down his airplane about 11:15 a.m., a student pilot was taking off from John Wayne Airport for a solo flight, authorities said.

The woman, who was not identified, was flying a single engine Cherokee when it lost two of its landing wheels during takeoff.

Firefighters in the airport fire station spotted the problem and radioed the control tower, said Orange County Fire Authority Capt. Scott Brown.

The pilot was forced to fly in a holding pattern for about an hour but landed the plane safely.

“She did a great job,” said Pat Markley, an airport spokeswoman.