Plane makes emergency landing on beach in Watsonville after engine failure

WATSONVILLE, Calif. (KGO) -- A single-engine airplane made an emergency landing Saturday on the beach in Watsonville.

All three people who were on board walked away unharmed.

"He started coming down very slowly. We didn't realize it was an engine failure until someone told us, because he landed it very smoothly," said witness Akshay Nayak.

ABC7 News was at Manresa State Beach earlier today.

A crew of mechanics methodically took the wings and the propeller off the Cessna four-seater.

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The fuselage was loaded onto a trailer and trucked away for repairs.

The pilot reported engine failure on Saturday, right before putting the plane down on the sand.

State parks officials say no one was hurt and that the pilot did a good job landing.

"It's not really affecting anything. There a couple people coming over taking photos - because how often do you see a plane on a beach?" said Byran Kine, supervising lifeguard for California State Parks.

He said yesterday's outcome was very fortunate.

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