Small plane crash-lands at John Wayne Airport

SANTA ANA — A small plane crash-landed at John Wayne Airport on Sunday night, slightly injuring the pilot and forcing the closure of the airport’s main runway for the better part of an hour.

The incident happened just after 7:30 p.m. The pilot of a Mooney single-engine private plane reported that the plane’s landing gear could not deploy.

According to John Wayne Airport spokeswoman Jenny Wedge, the pilot was instructed to “belly land” on the airport’s main runway because it is longer than the airport’s general aviation runway.

The pilot put the plane down on the runway without its landing gear.

Wedge told KTLA the plane was badly damaged and had to be towed off the main runway.

The pilot, other than a few bumps and bruises, was not seriously injured.

The Federal Aviation Administration is now investigating the incident.