Pilot walks away unharmed after small plane crashes upside down south of Livermore

LIVERMORE, Calif. (KGO) -- An Arizona man is lucky to be alive on Friday after walking away from a plane crash.

He was the only person onboard the flight which crashed in a rural part of San Joaquin County, about 40 minutes southeast of Livermore on Friday morning.

It was all clear in Concord when a single-engine Cessna 150 took off for a flight around 8 a.m. Friday morning.

But within an hour and 20 minutes, something went terribly wrong.

Officials say they got a 911 call from someone inside the plane, which took off from Concord.

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The plane went down about 40 minutes southeast of Livermore in San Joaquin County.

The National Transportation Safety Board said preliminary information indicated that the pilot reported the airplane experienced a complete loss of engine power while en route and made a forced landing

It happened near the intersection of Mines Road and Tarraville Creek Road.

The plane was flipped upside down.

The pilot was seen on SKY7 video getting out the plane on the backside of the left wing as Alameda County firefighters arrived to help.

But in just shorts and a t-shirt, he was able to walk away from the crash site without any help. He told ABC7's Lena Howland by phone that while he does have some back pain from the crash, he is ok.

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An Instagram account linked to the pilot features numerous videos of a plane, with the same tail number as the one that crashed, on flights in Arizona, where the pilot lives.

He writes that he purchased the plane last year and started working as a certified flight instructor after leaving the San Francisco Police Department in 2022.

"It's amazing this guy walked away," said Richard Hodge, an Oakley resident.

Hodge says this pilot is lucky to be alive.

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We showed him the video as he was having lunch at the Buchanan Field Airport in Concord, and he says he's been through the same thing after crashing a glider plane in Vacaville 45 years ago.

He still uses a cane to this day as a result of the crash.

"Just amazed. Most crashes don't end that way," he said. "Mine, I was knocked unconscious, I broke my back, I had to be transported by ambulance. That's pretty amazing."

Both the FAA and the NTSB are investigating this incident.

Stay with ABC7 News for the latest details on this developing story.