Gnyandev Patel had less than a minute to come up with a plan.

Patel had made the 13-minute flight from Chino Airport to Riverside Municipal Airport to have breakfast there with two friends on Sunday morning, April 16, and was en route with the pair to Brackett Field in La Verne after easing his single-engine Piper into the sky at 10:07 a.m.

“The run-up was great, then the takeoff was good. I had plenty of power,” Patel said in a telephone interview.

But then at about 1,000 feet, the engine sputtered and stopped.

“What happens in 45 seconds, it’s hard to describe,” Patel said.

Patel, a 58-year-old resident of Orange who is an internal medicine physician in Lakewood, said he has been flying since 2008 without incident. But now he would be tested.

He said he didn’t have the power to make a turn back to the airport, so he scanned the horizon.

“There’s always a place to land,” Patel said. “Whether it’s safe or not, you don’t know. If I tried to make the runway, I probably would have crashed into some of the homes. I couldn’t find a flat surface. I found a hilly area and thought this is probably going to be the best (I can do). “

Patel landed 2-3 miles west of the airport and several hundred feet from homes near Stover Avenue and Gaylord Street on private property where mulch is often spread. His passengers suffered minor injuries and one went to a hospital to be checked out.

There was no fire, Riverside Fire Department Battalion Chief Pat Hopkins said, and the first firefighters to arrive found the three occupants walking outside the plane.

Patel had been airborne for 3 minutes before his hard landing, according to the FlightAware website.

“It kind of worked,” Patel said. “Not for the plane, but for us.”

Two passengers suffered minor injuries when the pilot of this airplane made a hard landing after losing power upon takeoff from Riverside Municipal Airport on April 16, 2023. (Courtesy of Riverside Fire Department)

He said he thought the plane was probably totaled. Patel co-owns the aircraft with Anaheim resident Amelia Castro, according to Federal Aviation Administration records.

“I’m just glad we made it and didn’t injure anyone on the ground,” Patel said. “Don’t try to make me a hero.”

The FAA and National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the incident.

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