Dive Brief:

• A small plane made an emergency landing at the Olinda landfill in Brea, CA. 
• The airplane had two people aboard when the engine failed and had to land. 
• The pilot took a route he had navigated many times before; the flight took off from Fullerton Municipal Airport, destined for Chino, CA.

Dive Insight:

The pilot, who has 45 years experience, looked down and saw the landfill space and decided to make an attempt to land on the flat area of the landfill. He managed to land in one of the few areas not covered with trucks and equipment. 

Fred Geller, the pilot and owner of the ’75 Beechcraft Bonanza aircraft, said he was lucky he was flying over the site when the trouble began. In 2005, an airplane having mechanical issues was forced to make an impromptu landing at the same exact site. 

This isn't the first ad hoc landing into a trash heap. In August of 2013, the Fenimore landfill in Roxbury, NJ became the location of an emergency landing. A helicopter landed at the site after the pilot made the decision to land during a heavy rainstorm. The day before the emergency landing, residents were evacuated from the area due to high hydrogen sulfide gas spikes.