2 Avoid Serious Injury in Crash-Landing : Aviation: The pilot and passenger complain of backaches after plane skids to a halt near Hansen Dam.

LAKEVIEW TERRACE — A physician and a retired airline pilot walked away from the wreckage of a small plane Saturday morning after the doctor was forced to make an emergency landing in a small field near Hansen Dam.

Dr. Gilbert Hum, 63, of Huntington Park and Art Flanagin, of Newhall complained only of backaches after the single-engine Mooney 201 airplane that Hum was piloting skidded into the field near a rock quarry.

Hum said the last time he checked the plane’s gauges before touching down, it was moving at 80 knots, about 90 m.p.h.

The plane crash-landed with its landing gear up, sliding about 50 feet over damp chaparral before the right wing smashed into a tree, spinning the aircraft around and bringing it to a stop.

About 10 gallons of fuel escaped into the dirt, but the spill was quickly contained by a crew of Los Angeles County firefighters.

“Any landing you walk away from is great,” said Hum, who has been flying small planes for about 15 years. “But what can I say? It got my adrenaline running.”

The two friends took off from El Monte airport at 8:30 a.m., heading for breakfast in Santa Barbara.

A few minutes into the flight, about 3,500 feet over La Canada, Hum informed air traffic controllers that the recently overhauled engine was running rough, the oil pressure was dropping and the cabin was filling with foul-smelling smoke.

A few moments later, the engine stopped.

Hum said the dirt field was his second choice for an ad hoc landing strip. His first choice was a dirt road nearby, but as he approached, he saw that the road was full of semi-trailer trucks.

Some pilots take classes to ready themselves for crash landings, but after his brush with death, Hum quipped that attending church every Sunday had been his best preparation.

“Didn’t you see that guy with the pitchfork waving you in?” asked Flanagin.

Hum said he and Flanagin went to St. Joseph’s Medical Center for a checkup before returning home. Neither suffered any serious injuries.

Investigators from the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board were trying to determine the cause of the crash Saturday.