ON THE WING

Woman Hit by Plane in Emergency Soccer Field Landing

A female pedestrian was hurt in the landing.

Two people, one of them a pedestrian, have been taken to the hospital after an aircraft landed on a soccer field, where it collided with a woman. The plane went down in Heartwell Park, Long Beach, California. KTLA reports it may have been an experimental vehicle. The pedestrian, a female in her 40s, was transported to a local area hospital. The network added that the aircraft’s elderly pilot may have been attempting to make an emergency landing at Long Beach Airport, approximately 1.5 miles away. The plane, in a red, white, and blue livery and covered with stars, lay crumpled on the ground. Long Beach Fire Department said in a statement that when emergency “units arrived, they found one small aircraft on its belly with broken landing gears. The plane’s fuselage was intact. When the plane landed, it collided with a pedestrian in the park.” It said that responders removed the pilot, an “elderly male, from the airplane and transported him via paramedics to a local area hospital.” Both patients suffered moderate injuries and were in stable condition.

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