The Federal Aviation Administration said the blast from a Boeing 737’s engine at a California airport rolled over a small plane that had a flight instructor and student inside.
No injuries were reported to either of the occupants inside the Cessna 172, which had just landed Saturday at John Wayne Airport in Santa Ana, when it was flipped onto its roof by United Airlines Flight 2611 preparing to take off.
“As soon as we started to turn to the left to enter the parking lot, we experienced sudden, strong airflow,” the Cessna’s flight instructor, Jason Ryu, told KCBS-TV. “At that moment, we lost, completely, the control, and the airplane started to tip over.”
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Surveillance video obtained by CNN shows the plane wobbling and tilting onto its left wing, then flipping over tail-first before landing upside down.
Both Mr. Ryu and his student, Kunal Gawli, were hanging from their seatbelts as they radioed air traffic control for help.
“We were scared. We were definitely scared,” Mr. Gawli told KCBS. “We were like, ‘What is happening?’”
The FAA said the plane took on “significant” damage in the incident. The agency and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the mishap.
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