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