A small plane crash-landed on Main Street in Ukiah, a Northern California town in Mendocino County, on Friday morning, yet both people on board escaped without serious harm and no bystanders were injured.
“It was amazingly lucky,” Ukiah Valley Fire Authority Battalion Chief Ryan Nelson told the Ukiah Daily Journal.
The private Cessna went down around 10:45 a.m. in the 300 block of North Main Street.
Nelson said the outcome could have been far worse: the aircraft missed nearby buildings, vehicles, pedestrians, animals and even utility poles when it came down.
“It was a very educated pilot,” Nelson told the Journal, referring to the person who brought the plane down and walked away uninjured.
The co-pilot, identified only as an adult man, sustained minor injuries in the abrupt landing but did not require medical treatment.
Authorities believe the two men were from outside the Mendocino County city.
According to Nelson, the plane was on its way to Ukiah Municipal Airport when it developed fuel and engine trouble. The aircraft did clip power lines during the incident, but Nelson said no outages had been reported.
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The Ukiah Police Department and the National Transportation Safety Board are handling the investigation, according to Nelson. Staff from the Ukiah Airport also responded to the scene.
After NTSB responds, Nelson said that the wings of the plane will be taken off before it’s towed from the street.
