Investigation just beginning into emergency landing cause

By: YVETTE URREA - Staff Writer | Monday, January 5, 2009 11:24 AM PST ∞

OCEANSIDE -- An Oceanside woman said Tuesday she was completely oblivious to the fact that a single-engine plane was about to make an emergency landing that would strike and spin her sport utility vehicle across the freeway lanes.
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"I was just driving along, minding my own business and boom out of nowhere," Maria Marshall said. "I'm sure I was pretty stunned."

Marshall, 55, now home with cuts and bruises all over her body, was driving along Highway 78 near El Camino Real just before 7 p.m. Monday when her car was hit by a small airplane piloted by Ramon Campbell. He told reporters that his engine blew up while he was returning to McClellan-Palomar Airport in Carlsbad on a flight to test a new engine.

On Tuesday, Campbell was gathering aircraft maintenance records, his medical records, pilot's log and pilot certificate documents for a Federal Aviation Administration investigator. He said that he did not have anything more to add about what happened Monday.

But Marshall said she remembers thinking it must have been another car that was pushing her. Her next cognizant thought was after her Saturn Vue had stopped on the opposite side of the freeway, she said. She remembers someone telling her it was a plane that had hit her vehicle.

"The physical shock is pretty bad, but the mental shock is pretty close," she said.

Motorist Mike Posey, 29, a nurse who was driving behind Marshall, said his window was cracked open a bit and the only unusual noise he heard before the Cessna 177 landed was a clicking. The noise only made him think that some other vehicle was trying to pass him up as he drove in the fast lane, he said Tuesday.

In a comment he had posted earlier on the North County Times Web site, he wrote, "... The plane almost put down on top of my car. It landed on its belly. The left wing slammed into the back of the car and pushed her into the center divide, then the plan(e) spun 180 (degrees), so it was facing the wrong way, and came to a rest against the center divide," Posey said. "When the plane spun, that freed up the car which had a smashed in driver's side fron(t) wheel. She then skid(ded) all the way over to the other side of the freeway and slammed into the wall. I slammed on my brakes, and instantly pulled over to offer assistance to the driver."

Posey ran over to Marshall and kept her calm and still until paramedics arrived.

"It was unreal," he said.

Marshall said she suffered a cut lip that required stitches, a cut near her eye and bruises all over her body from the seat belt and air bags.

Posey said all in all, he thinks the pilot did "an amazing job" of landing without causing more injuries.

Marshall said, "I'm glad (the pilot's) OK and I'm glad that I wasn't hurt any more than I was. I saw him looking to make sure I was OK."

Campbell, 55, who was unharmed, told reporters Monday night that he'd never crash-landed before. He is a pilot for Carlsbad-based Global Business Resource Inc., a real estate lending and loan company.

Meanwhile, the investigation into what caused the crash was just beginning Tuesday.

Federal Aviation Administration investigator Steve Bargo, went to Palomar Airport to gather records from Campbell and the plane's owner.

Bargo said he gave the plane's wreckage a quick look, but did not attempt to examine the engine. That's because the National Transportation Safety Board will be responsible for determining the cause of the crash, Bargo said.

Georgia Struhsaker, a Seattle-based safety board investigator, said that the cause of the crash probably wouldn't be determined for a few months.

"Under normal conditions, a pilot would not land on a highway with heavy traffic. He was having an emergency situation," said Struhsaker. "It's a pretty uncommon event for a pilot to have to land on a highway. It's not something a pilot is likely to experience."

Campbell, who has 45 years of flight experience, told reporters Monday night that he was testing a rebuilt engine when the engine seemed to explode and quit. This forced him to glide into the only landing area, a moderately busy section of Highway 78 near El Camino Real at 6:47 p.m.

The pilot said it seemed most of the vehicles saw him coming and seemed to make room for him.

FAA safety inspector and pilot Mike Rockley and Orion flight instructor Eric McClurkin both said that in an emergency, a pilot is trained to make the safest choice possible.

McClurkin, interviewed Tuesday at his business at Palomar Airport, said that once an engine cuts out, a pilot does not have a lot of time to decide. He said under optimum conditions, a pilot would seek out an empty field in the daytime, but Campbell probably didn't have that option. At night, a field would be pitch black, so a pilot would seek out a lighted roadway, he said.

Rockley said there are no written guidelines about how to land a plane in an emergency because it is situational.

McClurkin said in general when a pilot tests a new engine, there is a 10-hour break-in period where the engine will naturally heat up more. McClurkin said he will often have pilots circle the airport again and again for several hours until they are certain the engine is OK.

-- Contact staff writer Yvette Urrea at (760) 901-4076 or yurrea@nctimes.com.