Emergency call he made. Engine failure. Immediate return. 178, running three. Clear to land. Did you see the last location . I didnt. It looks like it shortened the runway up. You heard him call the radio tower who said that he could return to the runway 21, but he said it is not possible and he is at the hospital being treated for the injuries and his son ben ford tweeted, dad is at the hospital and he is okay. Dad is okay. And he is every bit the man you thought that he is. My dad is very strong man. And he is incredibly strong man. And he has flown fixed wings and helicopters for years. It is not the first forced landing. He had a helicopter, but he had a copilot for that landing. Kyung lah is there at the crash site, and has details. Are investigators still at the scene there . They are still on the scene. We understand that this press conference is going to be happening momentarily, and i am watching them gather around the microphones right now, anderson. What they are looking at is with what caused this what happened. We are hear ing from the witnesses. There is a witness that we spoke to a short time ago and he said that he actually heard the engine stop. He heard the engine fail. He says that is not particularly unusual when you are talk ging about older planes like this. But he assumed that it would start again, but it sounded like he said that the propeller simply stopped and never start started. So this is what happened. The other thing that he said was that this sis the kyung lah, i understand that the News Conference is starting so lets listen in. Butler from the Los Angeles Fire Department and have investigator patrick jones. Well take a few questions after that. This will be the last briefing of the night as far as i know. Well kick it off now with assistant chief patrick butler. Ready . Here we go. Good evening. My name is patrick butler. Assistant chief, Los Angeles Fire Department. Today, i am gathered with representatives from the ntsb, and the l. A. Bureau chief b. Gr b. Grimala. I want to give you a overview of the initial actions from the Fire Department and then the ntsb will speak to the incident itself and that will be any followups from that end. At approximately 2 20 p. M. This afternoon, the Los Angeles Fire Department received a 911 call of an airplane crash in the penmar golf course. Los angeles city firefighters and paramedics arrived on scene and found a single engine plane that had crashed here on the golf course with one male, 70yearold occupant. It appeared to be a solo occupant in an aircraft. Already on scene at that time were resources from the santa monica Fire Department. This incident involves the santa monica Fire Department, the Los Angeles Police department, the ntsb, the faa, and other agencies. The paramedics rendered first care to the individual. The patient was alert, talking, breathing, had some injuries and the paramedics initiated care. Spinal mobilization and then transported him to a local hospital where he was in moderate to fair condition. There was no fire, no evidence of fire. We checked the area for any other hazards and there is a small debris field here where the plane landed. Other than that, our Fire Department resources will maintain here through the night and assist with the other agencies involved. Like i say, our resources arrived on scene and transported one 70yearold male occupant to a local hospital and he is in moderate to stable condition at this time. With that, i would like to bring up a representative of the ntsb. Good afternoon. My name is patrick jones. Im an investigator with the National Transportation safety board. The first most important thing is that we have had injuries and we hope that the family and the pilot all recover in a rapid period of time. Approximately 14 20 this afternoon, there was a ryan vintage aircraft taking off from santa monica. The pilot reported a loss of engine power and was attempting to return to the runway. It appears that he clipped the top of a tree and came to rest on the golf course. As the chief said, there was only one person on board who was treated by witnesses and transported forward to the hospital. At this time, the ntsb has started an investigation with the faa in attendance, and our goal is to, tonight, to do some onscene documentation. We will ultimately recover the aircraft tomorrow morning to a local facility and continue the investigation. And our process is kind of a slow process, and im sure that theres going to be some questions about what caused this and whats that and if weve solved it. At this point in time, it is the very beginning of an investigation. It takes us a long time because we want to get it right. So i will not answer any questions that have anything to do with causation at this point. Can you tell us anything about the pilot surviving, and we know that you cant disclose his name, but can you talk about a situation like this and the pilot surviving and is this pilot very lucky . Most accidents, theres about 2,000 accidents a year. The question was, was this pilot lucky . Absolutely a pilot in any time a human being is involved in an accident is a lucky individual. But having said that, there are over 2,000 accidents a year nationwide that involve varying levels of injuries, none to fatalities. It is unusual actually for pilots to lose their lives because aviation is a pretty safe operation. But there are events that happen. As i said, anytime somebody can get out of any type of accident, whether its a car or whatever. Can you characterize it as [ inaudible ]. I am not even going to go there. There is no way to youre talking where youre asking me to analyze something that at this let me just rephrase this. Based on your experience thus far, that the plane lands right side up fairly intact does it look like it was done in a remote area i would say that any time that a pilot survives an accident in any case that that is a good thing. Injuries . I cannot all i know is what the Fire Department has told me. We have not been in touch with anybody at the hospital and thats, we believe he is going to survive at this point. You said it appeared this pilot at the Santa Monica Airport left and then took off and then circled back around to the runway or can you tell us i am actually responding to the information to the atc tapes that have been apparently already been played, because that is where i have heard it from. The pilot reported a loss of engine power and was attempting to return. [ reporter asking question ] next question. Why wasnt there any sort of fire from the fuel . That requires speculation that i cant make at this point. Mr. Jones, do you believe that an inexperienced pilot, it could have had a different are result, if it could have been a different event. 40,000 people a year die on automobile accidents every year on the highway and when theres an accident that somebody doesnt die in, you dont get that question. So i dont know at this point. How did this aircraft lose power . Flying an aircraft whether its this aircraft or a helicopter or whatever it takes experience. The pilot is an experienced pilot, and i will say that. What is the standard procedure in investigating the airplane . Doesnt have a black box, does it . Where do you start . Crew turning around . The question was, this does not have a black box. This is an old vintage aircraft. Many aircrafts do not have a black box nor are they required to have a black box. The problem is is that weve investigated accidents for decades and its only been in the last few decades that black boxes actually exist. So we go back to the basics. The initial report, loss of engine power. We are going to look at that, but were going to look at it all. Everything. Weather, man, machine. Pilots always recommend not to turn around. You heard that on the news and usually the procedure is not making a uturn coming back to the airport . Why is that . E e dont have any clue. A return to the airport depends what altitude youre at. And i dont know what altitude this pilot was at at the point in time that he chose to do that. So i have no way of knowing whether that was a good thing or a bad thing and if youre going to slam into a wall, maybe turning away is your only option, so. Surrounded by homes. How difficult is it when youre dealing with engine trouble like this area on the golf course . Im sure the pilot was glad that there was an airport here, i mean, that there was a golf course here. More incidents than normal in any crashes . No. There are and i know thats a local, this is a local issue. But it is, this airport is a very important airport. And theres a lot of business that comes in and out of this airport. I dont know when the last accident was here. But its i dont think flying is safe if its done right. Can do you know where the plane was headed . How long will your investigation take . A day or two . Can you give us a ball park here of the estimates of how long it will take here . The investigation normally takes a couple of months and normally a final report we try to get done within a year. He asked where the plane was headed. Do not know. Ill say this one more time. Anytime a human being is involved in an accident, whether its a car, jet, airplane or otherwise, and survives, is a good day. Where was the plane headed . I do not have that information. Do we know where the plane was headed . Do not know where the plane was headed. Can you talk about how much time elapsed from the takeoff to the time that the plane crashed . It is data that we will capture, but at this point in time i do not know. And maybe you said this before but i wasnt listening, but the plane recently takeoff or just takeoff, shortly after takeoff without a problem . The question was whether this was just taking off. My understanding is and all i know is that i heard the atc recording on the news and the pilot reported that he had an engine failure and returning to the airport. I believe those are his words. What is the it is not immediate at this point. From your experience, he was taking off obviously but from the distance to airport to here, how high, what do you think the altitudewise . I will not speculate on that. How far was he landing, how far was the crash from the Landing Strip . The airport is right over there. Its 100 yards or 200 or 300 yards, somewhere in that. I do not know how far away the airport, the runway is from here. One more question. [ reporter asking question ] will there be more stringent requests for more specific train g training for pilots . The i will say that this pilot is an experienced pilot. And the airplane obviously is a vintage airplane. Its a simpler airplane. So its got its own idiosyncrasies, whatever they are. Ive never flown this particular aircraft so i do not know what it may or may not have. What will the next briefing be . Im not planning on doing another briefing. I will give you a phone number and it is a phone number you can call and its to our pio. Youre listening to a press conference, an official from the ntsb there. Joining me is aviation analyst miles obrien and safety analyst david soucie. In terms of the investigation, obviously, the official from the ntsb making a big point that this is not going to be an overnight process. This is something that is going to take a long amount of time. Do you have a sense of what kind of timeline theyre talking about . It will take at least a week or two to get the aircraft just to a facility and start the disassembly of the aircraft but it can take the ntsb as long as two years to come out with the final report but i would expect it would be resolved in the next three to four months, but it could easily take that long. They would take the aircraft apart just as they would in a larger crash . Absolutely. Theres really little difference between the small aircraft investigations and large aircraft investigations in this case. Miles, we heard from obviously, the ntsb does not want to talk about much or speculate what happened to this aircraft but simply from the Radio Communications between Harrison Ford and the tower, it seems that there is engine failure shortly after takeoff. I dont think thats in doubt. Obviously the ntsb has to be circumspect about releasing facts but what we heard about the transmissions, he took off, lost the engine, turned around, tried to land on the airport and did great job with unforced landing. The focus will be the engine. What caused it to fail, the oil, fuel, or mechanical aspect of it, did it seize up in some way . Theyll break the engine apart and should be able to make that determination fairly quickly. No black boxes on this aircraft but you have a pilot stitched up and will give an interview and it will be very clear pretty quickly when a trained mechanic looks at that engine what happened. Thank you, miles and david, and stay with us as we continue to talk more about this, and more about it as this story unfolds at the scene. And more from the plane that slid off of the runway many in new york and those passengers who had a window seat as the water got closer, and closer and closer. Some scary moments there on the delta flight. 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That is my mistake, he was not talk t ging about a helicopter, but he had a hard landing, and in the time he had a copilot in the helicopter. And kyung lah joining us g using us once again. And we vhave heard from the ntsb and the Fire Department is trying to gather as much information as they can. Reporter yeah. You can see that there is actually a switchout of engines here. The they will be there overnight. They have no intention of moving it at least the next few hours or so but the ntsb said the engine failed, the pilot lost power. That is something that we are hearing also from people who actual lily heard the engine fail from the ground. They could hear it. This is what one witness told us. Planes dont crash all the time. I think that one happened about five years ago. That crash almost right outside the house on the golf course as well. But you hear them quite often. The engines go out a little bit but typically they, you know, they come back on and everything is okay. But youre thinking, oh, maybe today is another one that goes down like today. Reporter when you heard, tell me specifically, what did you hear . The engine cut out, but it is not that special. You will hear that all of the time, and so it is not that special. Typically the engine comes on again. Sometimes they go like when you have an old car and it doesnt run quite well, not clean. Its just similar to that but the sound is similar to that. I dont know what these engines are like but im assuming because theres a lot of old planes here as well as new ones that thats what happens. Sometimes the old engines just dont work and thats what happened here as far as thats what ive heard. So youve heard the engine actually stop. I didnt hear the stop. I heard it having problems and then he turned around and he was right by the house. The engine cut out. And then he turned around. Thats what i heard, he turned around and got back to the airport. I didnt hear the actual crash. I hear the ride above the house and like i say, its not the first time i heard an engine make that kind of noise. You werent alarmed. You said that you heard it again, but you were not alarm eded when you heard the engine stop . Sh. Well, it is not the first time and typically they come back. They cut out a little bit and then they come back on, and it happens a lot. Reporter and in the old planes how many old planes are lying around . I have no idea, but i know that there are a lot of the collectors up there with a lot of old plane and a friend of mine has an old plane up there as well. I love the plane, and they are beautiful. They are much nicer than the jets and i like to see them, and i enjoy that part of them. When i grew up, we had a tiny airport and it reminds me of home where i grew up. Reporter what do you think the way he landed . He landed in a green space. I think its amazing that he made it back. I mean, he must be a very good pilot and i think hes, i guess my neighbor knows him and he must be a pretty good pilot. Reporter that neighbor as well as many others here say theyre very grateful that he is a good pilot, because where you are seeing me houses are behind me about 40 feet. Theyre very lucky he managed to land in this green space, anderson. Kyung, thank you very much for your reporting. Back now to miles obrien and david soucie. For viewers who werent watching the last hour, this airport is and the golf course is very, very extremely close. I mean, its in the midst of a Residential Community that has built up around this airport because its been there, as you said, since the early part of the 1900. It goes back to i think 1919 is what they first started flying around then and then really the real history there was the old douglas aircraft company. The Predecessor Company that made the md80 which we saw at laguardia today. And you can see in this picture, if we put that back on the screen, you can see the aircraft there on the green, a flash of yellow there on the green and get a sense of how close it is to the street. How close it is to those residences and perhaps Office Buildings just across the street. Since 1919, santa monica and venice area changed a bit. Shall we say. The area has absolutely grown right up to the edge of that runway as you can see right there, and it is a sore point with the community, the noise. You also get a sense with this map of just how close he became to getting back to Santa Monica Airport. You wo