A plane forced to make an emergency landing at a local park in Long Beach left the pilot and another person injured Tuesday after hitting a woman as it landed.
Firefighters responded to a plane crash near Carson Street, just east of Woodruff Avenue near Heartwell Park, around 4 p.m., according to a social media post from the Long Beach Fire Department.
Firefighters arrived to find the small plane upside down with the landing gear broken, according to authorities.
According to authorities, the pilot, an elderly man, was removed from the cockpit and hospitalized. A woman in her 40s who was hit by the plane in the park was also hospitalized. Both had moderate injuries but were in stable condition.
The plane was flying from Compton and was headed to French Valley and returning to Compton when the crash occurred, according to the social media post. The investigation into the cause of the accident is ongoing.
Long Beach Mayor Rex Richardson said during Tuesday's City Council meeting that the incident could have been “much worse.”
“And we are lucky that there have been no fatalities or serious injuries. It was a glider [that] “I made an emergency landing, a pretty rough landing on the field at Heartwell Park,” he added.
KTLA5 reported that the pilot may have been trying to get to Long Beach Airport, which is about a mile and a half northeast of the crashed plane.
According to the Long Beach Post, the plane took off around 9:15 a.m. Tuesday and landed a half hour later at French Valley Airport in Murrieta.
The plane then took off from Murreita Airport around 3:40 p.m. and then headed toward Long Beach Airport before crashing around 4 p.m.
