Plane Glides 10 Miles to Crash-Land on Zuma Beach After Engine Stalls

A single-engine plane glided to a crash-landing on Zuma Beach on Sunday after its engine stalled over Pepperdine University. No one was injured, authorities said.

“I was out of Van Nuys Airport at 3,500 feet when the engine stopped,” Pilot Patrick Altuna, 33, of Northridge said as he looked at his demolished aircraft in the sand.

Lifeguard Bob Buchanan said the four-passenger Cessna Cardinal II crash-landed on the beach at about 1:50 p.m., narrowly missing beach-goers.

“I saw the plane turning and it was falling steep. It was like slow motion then it hit the sand,” said surfer Peter DiStefano, 22, of Santa Monica.

“I totally ran in from the water to help, but they were OK. It was a great landing,” he said.

Also aboard the plane, which was on a sightseeing excursion of the coast, were Diane Altuna, 29, wife of the pilot, and her brother, Ronald Mulick, 36.

The pilot said all three remained calm after the engine quit and during the 10-mile glide to the beach near Trancas Beach, on the northern end of Zuma.