Vintage plane makes hard landing after losing propeller mid-flight

By: Associated Press -

JULIAN -- The pilot of a vintage airplane made a rough emergency landing Friday in a rural area of San Diego County after a propeller fell off in mid-flight, authorities said.

Neither of the two men on board the plane was injured.

Just after 11:30 a.m., the pilot cut power at an unknown altitude and glided to the ground in a field near Julian, about 60 miles northeast of San Diego, said Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor.

The passenger was taken to a nearby hospital for precautionary evaluation, Gregor said.

The plane was a single-engine amphibious Republic RC-3 SeaBee made in 1947. The propeller fell off the rear-facing engine about half an hour after the plane took off from a public airfield about 10 miles east of San Diego en route to Lake Mead, Nev., Gregor said.

"It's pretty unusual for that to happen," he said.

The San Diego County Sheriff's Department had not received any calls regarding injuries or damage from the falling propeller, said emergency services dispatch supervisor Shannon Powers.

Gregor said the airplane suffered substantial damage in the crash.

An FAA investigator was on site trying to determine why the propeller fell off, Gregor said.

The SeaBee was a low-priced civilian plane built by the Republic Aircraft Corp. in the years after World War II. Production of SeaBees was suspended in 1948.