Pilot and teen nephew safe after small plane makes emergency landing on sand at Huntington Beach

HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. (KABC) -- A small plane made an emergency landing on the sand at Huntington Beach shortly after takeoff on Monday. Now, the pilot and his 16-year-old passenger are speaking out about what led up to the landing.

The Piper PA-28 Cherokee plane made the emergency landing at Huntington State Beach near Magnolia Street and Pacific Coast Highway just after 2 p.m.

It happened about two miles south of the pier, which is busier than usual due to the 2026 U.S. Open of Surfing.

There were two people on board at the time of the crash -- the pilot and his 16-year-old nephew. No injuries were reported, including the bystanders who were on the beach during the landing.

Eyewitness News spoke with the pilot and his passenger. The plane was equipped with a camera, which caught video of the emergency landing.

"I think we're extremely fortunate," said pilot Mike Bremner.

Bremner said his pre-flight checks were normal and the takeoff was normal.

They took off from Santa Ana's John Wayne Airport and were headed to Van Nuys. When they hit about 1,000 feet, Bremner said something went wrong with the engine. It all happened within five minutes of takeoff.

"When that happens, we run by memory. A very quick check to see if we can get the engine restarted. Not a lot much different than in your car. Pump the accelerator, check the ignition, switch tanks, in our case. Given that we were only at 1,000 feet, we immediately made sure the plane was flying at such a speed that it would glide the farthest," Bremner explained. "When I realized that it wasn't going to start again, I looked to my right, I saw the beach, the winds were relatively light, and we set it up for landing and we touched down."

"He's like, 'Griffin, we're going down,'" 16-year-old Griffin Bremner said. "The plane starts to stutter a little bit, and the propeller slows down and whatnot, and then he starts steering towards the beach."

It was Griffin's first time flying with his uncle.

Bremner said that while all pilots are trained for these types of emergencies, he feels incredibly grateful that he and his nephew, who is visiting from Canada, were able to walk away from the landing and that they were able to land in such a wide open area.

"Grateful is the word for it. I mean, all pilots train for a forced landing. Every -- from private right up to airline transport -- you plan for an emergency landing. But you never really know what you're going to do until it happens," Bremner said.

Now, the duo says it's an unexpected trip to the beach that they will never forget.

"I actually grabbed a rock from under the wheel to remember the incident," Griffin said.

"That's my nephew. I still have to tell his father what happened today, my brother. And his mother," Bremner said with a laugh.

The FAA will now work to investigate what exactly went wrong with the engine that led to the incident.