SANTA ANA - A Cessna crashed on the San Diego (405) Freeway near John Wayne Airport on Friday and burst into flames while trying to return to the airport after losing one of its two engines, leaving the pilot and his passenger hospitalized in critical condition and causing a traffic nightmare for commuters and travelers at the outset of the Fourth of July holiday weekend.
A pickup truck was clipped by the plane as it crashed onto one of the most heavily traveled freeways in the nation at 9:35 a.m., but the Uber driver and his passenger came away unscathed, other than a bruised elbow, and no other injuries were reported on the ground, according to an Orange County Fire Authority Capt. Larry Kurtz.
"You know as well as I do know all the traffic problems on the 405 no matter where you are, and for a plane to actually land on the freeway and only clip one vehicle is extraordinary, and the fact that the person in the vehicle also was pretty much uninjured is also extraordinary,'' Kurtz told reporters at the scene. "I talked to the individual (in the truck) and he said it definitely was a shock to him to suddenly see a plane on the freeway. But the great thing is that no other vehicle was involved and right now all we have is a plane on the freeway.''
The pilot of the Cessna 310 radioed that he had lost one of his engines just after takeoff and then made a frantic mayday call to air traffic controllers seconds before the plane came down on the southbound lanes, north of the MacArthur Boulevard exit.
"We got a mayday! We got a mayday! ... I can't make it back to the airport," he could be heard saying.
Kurtz said the 62-year-old pilot and his passenger, a 55-year-old woman, "both had critical, traumatic injuries" but "had good vitals when they were moved from the aircraft." He added they were conscious when taken to Orange County Global Medical Center in Santa Ana.
The passenger was out of the plane, trying to aid the pilot, when an off-duty fire captain from the city of Avalon on Catalina Island left his nearby vehicle and ran to their aid, according to Kurtz.
The pilot of the six-seater plane -- registered to Twin Props 87297LLC, based out of Santa Ana -- was trying to return to the airport with a crippled right engine minutes after takeoff when it crashed on the southbound lanes of the freeway about 1,000 feet short of Runway 20-R, according to Ian Gregor of the Federal Aviation Administration.
The freeway was completely closed in both directions after the crash, creating a miles-long backup. As of 12:45 p.m., the southbound side remained closed. Traffic was flowing again on several northern lanes, but the carpool and left lanes remained blocked, as did the southbound Newport (55) Freeway transition road to the southbound 405.
The airport was closed for arrivals for about 45 minutes after the crash, but departures were not affected, according to spokeswoman Deanne Thompson.
"Anyone headed to the airport today needs to find a route other than the 405," she said. "It's really a mess, and it's a terrible shame.''