Plane makes emergency landing on sand at Huntington Beach after takeoff from John Wayne Airport

A small two-seater airplane made an emergency landing on Huntington State Beach after losing engine power shortly after takeoff from John Wayne Airport Monday afternoon, July 27, according to tower communications.

The fixed-wing, single-engine Piper Cherokee 140 took off from the airport about 2 p.m. and, minutes later, the pilot alerted the tower of the emergency before landing on the sand, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. No injuries were reported.

“Mayday, mayday, mayday, we’ve lost our engine,” the pilot, Mike Bremner, was heard on the radio. “We’re just coming up over the shoreline and, uh, we’ll be putting it down on the beach, uh, just in front of the, uh, stacks.”

Bremner told a photographer for this news organization that he and his passenger were headed to Van Nuys and had planned to fly along the coast on the way north. The plane had climbed up to 1,000 feet when the engine failed.

“(It) went down to a sputter,” Bremner said, “and we ran a very brief checklist, which is by memory, check the ignition, turn the fuel pump on, switch your fuel tanks.

“At that altitude, you’re going to have to land very quickly,” he continued. “So you’re not going to have a lot of time to troubleshoot the problem when you’re that low.”

Once they determined the engine wasn’t going to start again, “I searched for a landing spot, the winds are light, I looked over to the right, I saw a big beach with not very many people on it and we aimed for a clear spot and touched it down.”

Bremner estimated the plane was traveling about 50 knots, or 50 to 60 mph, when it hit the sand, the nose wheel causing the plane to slide sideways for a bit.

The aircraft was registered to Elder Abuse Air Force, a charity based out of Rancho Santa Margarita, according to FAA registration records.