Small plane crash-lands into portable potties

PUYALLUP, Wash. -- Of all things, it had to be a bunch of toilets.

A small plane crashed into a storage yard full of portable potties Friday afternoon near Thun Field just minutes after taking off from the field.

Pilot Clifford Howell of Lake Bay told investigators at about 150 feet in the air, his engine quit. He banked and tried to make it back to the runway, but came up short.

"He just took a nosedive," said witness Brian Berscheid.

"I spoke to him briefly, and he said just lost power, and he was trying to get it down safely," said Pierce County Sgt. Mike Blair.

But the ground came rushing up while the plane was still short of the runway. And by chance, the Cessna went straight into a lot of Honey Buckets on the north end of the airport.

Witnesses say the plane bounced off the rows of portable toilets in a storage yard at the north end of the field, flipped, then landed upside down on a pile of wood chips.

"I could tell he was in a little bit of trouble, but I thought he could make it over the toilets back there," said Berscheid.

"Lands on top of a group of sandy cans, and then bounces off those into a pile of wood chips where it comes to rest," said Blair.

Investigators say the toilets and the wood chips cushioned a potentially dangerous landing.

"If he had made the runway, he would have landed a lot harder than he did by impacting with those Sani-Cans and the wood pile," Blair said. "It probably saved his life, I would think."

Help arrived within seconds, and Howell, who was the only person on board, was able to get clear of the wreck. He was on his own feet, but not without injuries.

"He had an impact injury to his forehead, and for precautionary reasons we sent him to Good Samaritan Hospital to get checked out," said Blair.

Howell has been treated and released.

It appears the experienced 67-year-old pilot has given new meaning to the term "bathroom break."

"That is an odd thing," Berscheid said.

It is not known why the plane's engine cut out. The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating.