Pilot avoids tragedy safely crash lands in Fresno

First responders rush to the Chandler Airport in Fresno as a pilot crash lands. Our news crew heard eyewitness accounts from both first responders on scene and from the man behind the controls of the plane. The pilot of the single engine plane crash landed at about 8 o’clock Tuesday night at Chandler Airport and to their surprise nobody was injured.

First responders with decades of experience say in most cases a crash like this ends in tragedy, but thanks to calm, quick thinking this pilot walked away from the crash.

"I was about 8500 feet about ten miles out and my engine quit, basically came apart," said pilot Mike Hutchinson.

When veteran pilot Mike Hutchinson left his home in Bakersfield he never imagine his plane would end up where it did. 

"I’ve never had an engine out in 30 years of flying," said Hutchinson.

Instead of landing in the Sacramento area his plane sits mangled and caught in barbed wire.

"I couldn’t control the engine it kept revving and stopping and revving and stopping and so I made it to the runway I just couldn’t get it stopped," said Hutchinson. 

For ten miles Hutchinson sat in his pilot seat thousands of feet above the valley with a faulty engine. Using his radio he told ground crews he’d have to do an emergency landing.

"I just had to think about getting it to the airport, staying out of the neighborhood and looking for farmland if I couldn’t make the airport," said Hutchinson.

While his plane will need some serious repairs to get back up in the sky, Hutchinson says he’s thankful to be back safe on the ground.

"I’m ok. I had my shoulder belt on. My seatbelt on I just shut everything off and got out of the plane," said Hutchinson.

First responders say Hutchinson is a hero for the way he handled his engine trouble with so many homes and neighborhoods surrounding the Chandler Airport. By landing safely at the airport he’s being called a very gifted pilot.