4 Survive Plane Crash in San Gabriels : Accident: One passenger hikes through mountain terrain to a house in Lake View Terrace for help. Only minor injuries are reported.

Three Southern Californians were rescued after their small plane crashed in the San Gabriel Mountains and a fourth hiked hours through rugged terrain to seek help, authorities said Saturday.

Dean Stratton, 27, reached a house in Lake View Terrace about 11 p.m. Friday, hours after the plane crashed in the mountainous Little Tujunga Creek area of the Angeles National Forest, said Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputy Mary Landreth.

A Los Angeles County Fire Department helicopter crew spotted the wreckage shortly after midnight near Dillon’s Divide in the national forest, Landreth said. The sheriff’s Montrose search-and-rescue team, in four-wheel drive vehicles and then on foot, reached the victims about 1 a.m.

The pilot, Michael Davis 28, of Valencia, and the two other passengers, Wesley Burnett, 30, of North Hollywood, and Don Cook, 24, of Santa Clarita were taken by helicopter to Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital in Valencia.

Stratton did not require medical attention. “He’s very stiff and very sore but it’s all minor stuff,” said his father, Robert Stratton of Canyon Country. “He would have been hurt a lot worse except he had a chance to duck down and brace himself.”

Cook broke his ankle and has multiple cuts, said nursing supervisor Anne Coleman. Robert Stratton said Burnett and Davis both suffered facial cuts and broken facial bones.

The single-engine Piper Cherokee took off from Whiteman Air Park in Pacoima about 8 p.m. Friday for Laughlin, Nev., but soon developed engine trouble and crashed near 4,635-foot Mendenhall Peak in the mountains above the San Fernando Valley, deputies said.

The plane flipped over several times and rested in some brush on the side of a canyon.

Dean Stratton pulled his friends out of the plane. When he saw that Davis had regained consciousness, Stratton left to seek help, Robert Stratton said. His son followed power lines until he reached a house on the edge of Lake View Terrace.

“He just ran until he couldn’t any more, then he would walk, catch his breath and run some more,” the father said.

The cause of the crash is under investigation by the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board, Landreth said.