San Fernando Valley : Home-Made Plane Hits Mountain, Pilot Survives
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A Pasadena man flying a home-made plane smashed into a mountainside 100 yards from the Golden State Freeway near Castaic, then crawled to the side of an isolated road where he lay for 12 hours overnight before being discovered Friday by the California Highway Patrol.
Two CHP officers en route to a traffic accident on the freeway said they found Donald Compton as they were turning around about 3:45 a.m. on an access road used by highway workers.
When they pulled up, the officers said, Compton was lying beside the road and lifted a bloody arm. CHP Officer Richard Getzelman said he could see that Compton had cuts all over his forehead, cheeks and lips.
Compton, 62, had apparently crawled 40 feet in rugged terrain after his single seat, home-built plane crashed in heavy fog about 4:45 p.m. Thursday.
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