Light Airplane Smacks Tree, Pilot, Wife Escape Uninjured
March 9, 1958
A Castro Valley, California, couple escaped injury yesterday when their single-engine light plane smashed into a tree while attempting a forced landing.
Lassen County sheriff’s deputies said neither Virgil E. Judd, about 45, nor his wife, Wilma of 9230 Castro Valley Blvd., was injured in the crash.
Judd was en route from Klamath Falls, Ore., to Red Bluff, Ca., when his plane began to ice up and the engine lost power about eight miles west of here. Judd tried to land the Fairchild 24 on State Sign Route 36, but seconds after the wheels touched the ground, he said the aircraft veered off the highway and plowed into a tree.
He had landed at Susanville only minutes before the accident. The sheriff’s office said the airplane was destroyed.
