Cessna sets down on rural road

TAXI SERVICE- Police and fire crews escort a Cessna airplane back to the Camarillo Airport Tuesday afternoon after the pilot was forced to make an emergency landing on a rural road just outside of city limits. No one was injured in the soft landing, and the pilot says he's unsure what caused the engine problem. Photo Courtesy of the Ventura County Fire Department

Sacramento resident Bret Muhlitner said he's still not exactly sure what went wrong with the engine of his small Cessna plane which forced him to make an emergency landing on a rural road just south of Camarillo around 2 p.m. on Tuesday.

No one was injured in the soft landing on Cawelti Road just west of Lewis Road.

The 33-year-old marketing executive said he was flying about 3,500 feet above Thousand Oaks while in route to the Camarillo Airport from Orange County's John Wayne Airport when he began having engine problems.

Muhlitner, a former Newbury Park resident, said he contacted Camarillo Airport's flight control and reported the problem. He said air officials gave him clearance to land, but the engine problem forced him to put the plane down about three miles short of the airport.

Muhlitner safely landed the plane, a 1959 Cessna 182, and then pushed it to the side of the road. Police and fire crews arrived shortly after the plane landed, Muhlitner said.

Fuel was added to the plane on site and Muhlitner taxied it under police and fire escort to the Camarillo Airport. Muhlitner said a mechanic will look at the engine to determine the problem and that he suspects it was a problem in the fuel line.

A pilot for about a year, Muhlitner said the incident hasn't deterred him from returning to the cockpit.

"I think that it makes me a little bit more confident because I've been through a full emergency landing on my own, not in training," he said.

Officials said the Federal Aviation Administration is investigating the landing.

- Daniel Wolowicz