Witness Says Pilot Reported Running Out Of Fuel

A pilot attempting an emergency landing at San Jose's Reid-Hillview Airport in California reportedly overshot the runway and wound up in a tree in a shopping mall parking lot.

According to Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor, a Cessna 210 (type shown above) was headed to an airport in Hayward when the pilot experienced some type of engine problem.

"Fortunately, nobody on the ground was injured and there was no damage," Gregor said. "(The plane) hit a couple of trees and nothing else."

Pilot Richard Groger, 77, and his wife were returning from a vacation in Palm Springs when he began experiencing engine trouble.

So, when he apparently missed the airport, he picked a tree to ditch in, according to the San Jose Mercury News.

Groger, a retired San Francisco division fire chief, said "I wish we had landed without any damage to the aircraft. It's a total catastrophe. I'm not going to fly again."

When asked if this was the scariest situation he'd ever been in, he said, "No, this wasn't the scariest. I've been in a lot of scary places as a firefighter. You just pick your best spot once you can't get to a field and you just think about safety."

Both people on board suffered only minor injuries and were picked up at the scene by their son who took them to the hospital as a precaution.

A student pilot told reporters he overheard radio chatter just prior to the accident that indicated, "they ran out of fuel and glided as much as possible," said Raghav Samyal.

FMI: www.faa.gov, www.reidhillviewairport.com/reid_hillview.htm