Two people were able to walk away from an airplane that made a crash landing along a busy street in Buena Park on Thursday afternoon, officials said.
The mishap was first reported about 5:15 p.m. at Commonwealth Avenue and Indiana Street, Fullerton Police Department officials said.
The plane has just taken off from nearby Fullerton Municipal Airport, Orange County Fire Authority officials said.
Pilot Benjamin Jacob Denis said a student pilot was at the controls when the airplane started losing engine power just after takeoff.
“We had a partial engine loss. We had a slow climb, so at that point, I took over for my student,” Denis said. “The engine gradually lost power, so we decided to go land on commonwealth.”
Surveillance camera footage from a nearby businesses captured the moment the plane touched down.
Denis describe the successful emergency landing as “bittersweet.”
“Planes landing in the street isn’t good for general aviation, but proper training kept us alive,” he said. “I’m glad to be here and on the ground.”
No injuries were reported on the plane or on the ground, OCFA officials said.
Aerial footage from Sky5 showed the Cessna 172 sitting upright on its landing gears near the center divider of Commonwealth Avenue with its right wingtip bent. There were no signs of a fire.
A fuel leak was quickly stopped before the airplane was loaded onto a tow truck and hauled back to Fullerton Municipal Airport.
The single-engine airplane had a valid flight status through February 2021, Federal Aviation Administration records show.
The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board will investigate the incident, Buena Park police officials said.
KTLA’s Nidia Becerra and Alexandria Hernandez contributed to this report.