When the engine on his small plane suddenly quit about 800 feet above the San Diego coastline, pilot Victor Schneider started looking for a safe place to land.
He and his daughter had taken off from the Oceanside airport about 15 minutes earlier.
Schneider, a commercial airline pilot who has owned the Cessna for more than 23 years, found a spot on the sand in Mission Beach near the waterline. Shortly before noon, he glided to a stop.
He and his daughter opened the doors and climbed out of the plane after the emergency landing. No one on the ground was injured, either.
Schneider told reporters he tried to restart the plane’s engine after it cut out, but he realized he “couldn’t get it back.”
He began looking for a stretch of sand without people on it. His timing was lucky: The weather Tuesday was cool with light sprinkles, making for an uncrowded beach.
“The thing is you want to put it down where it’s safe, and I didn’t want to hit anybody,” he said. “So fortunately there (weren’t) that many people on the beach. There was only about four people within about a quarter of a mile, so they were all widely spaced.”
He said he tried to avoid the dry sand, knowing landing there could flip the plane over. So he headed toward the edge of the waterline, “threw about 30 degrees of flaps on” which slowed the plane and touched down.
The plane came to rest in front of Manhattan Court.
Lifeguards watched the plane as it landed, then firefighters and police checked if anyone was injured. The plane was removed from the beach after the FAA gave the OK, Marine Safety Capt. Maureen Hodges said.
A Cessna made an emergency landing at Mission Beach on Tuesday. The two people onboard were not injured, officials said. (K.C. Alfred / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
Etech Muñoz, a lifelong Mission Beach resident, said he saw the plane land.
“The dude came in hot, but also pretty graceful,” Muñoz said. “I thought he was going to crash, and I couldn’t believe my eyes for a second. And then he just started floating through the air and hit the sand.”
Then the pilot coolly opened the door and hopped out of the plane unharmed. “He didn’t have a scratch on him!” Muñoz said. “He must’ve known what he was doing because it was one of the smoothest things I’ve seen in my whole life.”
San Diego Fire-Rescue spokesperson Candace Hadley said no debris or fuel was scattered on the sand after the emergency landing, and the beach remained open.
“Just given the location of where he landed, I think it speaks to the experience of the pilot,” Hadley said. “It was pretty miraculous.”
The pilot’s daughter, Jennifer Schneider, who works as a flight attendant, said her father was careful to find the right spot for his emergency landing. She said he’s been flying since he was 16.
“We saw that wonderful, long runway here, and with his skill and expertise, he landed better than on pavement,” she said. “I have complete faith in his skill, his ability. He’s been trained, he’s been through countless hours of emergency drills. So he knew what he was doing… I had faith in that, and obviously, God was watching over us as well.”
Staff writer Caleb Lunetta contributed to this report.
Originally Published: October 21, 2025 at 12:22 PM PDT