WRIGHTWOOD >> A glider pilot from Alhambra and his passenger “miraculously” escaped serious injury Saturday in an emergency crash landing in the Angeles National Forest near Wrightwood, authorities said.
The incident unfolded shortly before 11 a.m., Los Angeles County sheriff’s officials said in a written statement.
The glider pilot, a 57-year-old Alhambra man, and his passenger, a 53-year-old Beverly Hills man, suffered only minor injuries in the incident. Lt. Darren Harris of the sheriff’s Palmdale Station said.
The unpowered aircraft had been towed into the sky by an airplane from the Crystal Airport in Llano prior to the mishap.
“At some point after being released from the powered aircraft, the glider lost altitude quickly, forcing the pilot to make an emergency crash landing,” Harris said.
The glider, described as a DG Flugzeugbau DG100S, “reportedly crashed in rugged terrain 5.6 miles north of Wrightwood under unknown circumstances,” FAA spokesman Allen Kenitzer said. “The aircraft sustained substantial damage.”
A sheriff’s department helicopter located the crash scene in a mountainous section of the forest, landed and flew the pilot and passenger to safety, officials said.
“Miraculously, the pilot sustained only minor injuries and was treated at the hospital,” Harris said. “The passenger also sustained minor injuries and declined medical treatment.”
The cause of the emergency crash landing was being investigated by both the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Boar, FAA spokesman Allen Kenitzer said. “The NTSB is the lead investigative agency.
According to an FAA database, the glider is registered to Southern California Soaring Academy Inc. in Valencia.
The NTSB generally publishes a preliminary report on aviation mishaps within a week or two of the incident, Kenitzer said.
“However, it typically take the NTSB months to come up with a probable cause for accidents.”