Plane in Glendora Crash Recovered From Mountainside

The plane that sat on a Glendora mountainside more than a day after it crashed last week now sits in pieces at an aircraft recovery station in Pearblossom, Calif.

On the afternoon of Monday, Jan. 31, flight instructor Gene Yu, 50, and his student Joo Yung Park, 37, made on a mountainside above St. Lucy Priory High School on Sierra Madre Ave.

Both survived the crash and rescue teams pulled the two to safety in a daring airborne rescue.

But the plane, still intact, sat in plain view above the city for more than 24 hours, becoming a brief tourist attraction for curious bystanders.

Lt. Tim Staab said officers patrolled the area to keep people from getting too close, although he said the site was very difficult to access by foot.

The following afternoon, a recovery team from Aircraft Recovery Services, quickly retrieved the plane from the hillside with little fanfare. The team had been contracted by the insurance company of the plane's owner, which the Federal Aviation Administration listed as a resident from Loma Linda.

Jerry Prince, owner of Aircraft Recovery Services, said the plane was disassembled, with each piece hoisted up by a helicopter.

Prince said the two-hour recovery process was difficult.

“It was a hands-and-knees type operation,” said Prince. “The plane was sitting at an awkward angle and the hill was so steep.”

The pieces were secured to a flatbed truck waiting at a nearby ridge and were transported to Prince’s property in Pearblossom.

While the recovery process was a success, the plane itself fared less fortunately.

“The plane is toast,” Prince said. “The wing is crushed and the engine is destroyed. There's no way it can fly again."

Prince said the salvageable parts will be sold off, but not after the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board conduct an investigation into the accident.

The plane will be reassembled for the investigation, which Lt. Staab said could take several weeks.