Deputies OK After Crash Landing Into Tractor Trailer
STOCKTON (CBS13) — Two San Joaquin County deputies are okay after their sheriff's office plane crash-landed in a field near the Stockton airport on Thursday evening.
The plane came to stop after crashing through a fence and into a tractor-trailer, pinning its nose under the vehicle.
Both deputies were able to walk away from this crash without any injuries. The San Joaquin County Sheriff's Cessna single-engine plane's tail is suspended in mid-air, its nose pinned to the ground.
The plane crash-landed in a field, the pilot unable to stop the aircraft until skidding into the trailer.
Brenda Hummel was at work when she first heard the plane engine sputter and knew something was wrong.
"I was shaking...I thought it was going to catch fire," Hummel said.
Moments later she watched it slam into the ground.
"A couple of the drivers were outside, they turned around and it flew right over the top of our warehouse, and they thought it was going to land on the warehouse it was so low. So, the pilot did an amazing job of getting away from buildings and people," Hummel said.
The sheriff's department says the two veteran pilots on board were on a routine training flight and had just taken off from Stockton airport when they noticed something wrong.
"And they were going to attempt to turn around and land back at the airport and this is where they had to land," San Joaquin County Sheriff's spokesperson Andrea Lopez said.
The deputies are okay, but the plane is not. It will remain in the field overnight until the NTSB and FAA arrive to begin their investigation.
