FILLMORE : Pilot Safe After Stunt Plane Crashes

A small stunt aircraft crashed in an orange grove on South Mountain Road near Fillmore on Saturday, but the pilot suffered only minor injuries after parachuting to safety, authorities said.

Peter Poland, 50, of Camarillo was flying a CAP-10 B airplane from Camarillo Airport about 12:15 p.m. when, as he pulled out of a dive, the wings fell off the plane. It went into a nose-dive at about 4,000 feet and Poland bailed out at about 2,000 feet. The plane crashed and burned in the orange grove.

“I started to pull up for a loop and I believe the left wing broke,” Poland said Saturday evening. “I heard a big bang and then all hell broke loose.”

After parachuting to the ground, Poland walked to a house and asked residents to notify authorities.

He then walked to the crash site to wait for emergency workers.

Poland was taken by ambulance to Santa Paula Memorial Hospital, where he was treated for bruises and a cut on his nose and then released.

“I’m a lucky guy,” he said.

Because he was flying the plane at a high altitude, he had “more of a safety cushion,” he said.

Poland has been a pilot for about 20 years but has had only about 20 hours of flying experience in the CAP-10 B, a two-seat aircraft built in France.