Loses Propeller Mid-Flight Over San Diego County

The propeller from a vintage Republic RC-3 SeaBee amphibian fell off about half an hour after it took off from a public airfield 10 miles east of San Diego, CA Friday, according to FAA spokesman Ian Gregor. The plane was en route to Lake Mead, NV, and made a hard landing in a rural area.

Neither of the two men on board was injured, he added, although the passenger was taken to a hospital for a precautionary evaluation.

Gregor reported that just after 11:30 am, the pilot cut power at an unknown altitude and glided to the ground in a field near Julian, 60 miles northeast of San Diego.

"It's pretty unusual for that to happen," he said to the Associated Press. The airplane suffered substantial damage in the forced landing.

An FAA investigator was on site to determine why the propeller fell off.

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.

One of the few amphibious light aircraft to be produced in any sort of numbers, the Republic Seabee was built by the same company responsible for the legendary P-47 Thunderbolt fighter.

The Seabee (file photo of type, above right) was conceived during the latter stages of the war when Republic began looking beyond its massive wartime contracts to a foundation for sustained peacetime production. The original concept was one quite popular during the 1940s -- to provide a four-seat, light aircraft costing little more to purchase and operate than a family car. More than 1,000 Seabees were built in just one year of production.

Seabee production began in mid 1946, but lasted only until October 1947, when Republic opted to concentrate on its more lucrative military business, in spite of healthy Seabee sales.

FMI: www.seabee.info/seabee.htm, www.faa.gov