Both passengers were immediately taken to a nearby hospital.
The pilot Jeff Welles was released later that night. The other passenger, Obbie Atkinson, died at Sierra Vista Regional Medical Center Friday night, according to a San Luis Obispo Tribune article.
“Both were badly injured,” said the battalion chief for CAL FIRE, Timothy Harness.
The first emergency call came in at 9:55 a.m. and authorities were on the scene almost immediately according to Es Berliner, an information officer for CAL FIRE.
The plane came to rest upside-down in a low-running creek bed on the north side of the railroad tracks. Harness said he had been concerned about a slight leak from the fuel.
“There is a slight leak we found when we got here that was dripping out of one of the fuel caps,” Harness said. “We were able to stop that with a putty. We stopped the leak, there is no fuel that got into the creek.”
Jeremy West, an aerospace engineering senior, was in a different airplane on his way back from a training flight for his aerospace 409-Flight Test class. West, along with professor Kurt Colvin, overheard a call from the distressed pilot to the control tower.
West said the pilot radioed the tower to say his engine was out and he was searching for a field so the plane could land safely. The tower then asked Colvin if he could see the plane, which he could, and the pair began following the progress of the plane.
West said the pilot sounded serious and was clear that he could not make it back to the airport.
“There wasn’t a lot of banter back and forth, but it sounded like he expected to land somewhere,” West said. “It sounded like he was prepared for it.”
West said that without power the pilot could not generate any lift and was basically in control of a glider at that point. The plane was gliding north (toward Cal Poly from Bishop Peak) and crossed Highway 1, when West noticed the plane appeared to be turning towards the intramural fields.
“He was banking right to go to the soccer fields, (but) I think he saw someone (on the fields) and saw there was a field to his left,” West said. “He banked to make the turn to his left, but he was low, so he crashed into some trees. It looked like his left wing hit the tree first, so his nose was swinging left. It looked like he rotated almost 180 degrees, and also his tail went up over him.”
West’s account appears to confirm the position of the plane, upside down in the creek, and rules out the possibility that it rolled into the area.
“I was shocked when I first saw it,” West said.
Colvin immediately notified the control tower and began circling above the crash site. The pair could not see anyone get out of the plane, but they stayed over the site until authorities arrived.
Harness said the Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) would take over the investigation.
Around 12:30 p.m. Thursday a crane arrived to begin the process of removing the plane, which is the NTSB’s responsibility.