GILROY / Small plane crashes into raw sewage tank

A small airplane apparently took a nose-dive into a tank of raw sewage near Gilroy on Monday afternoon.

Gilroy police Sgt. Kurt Svardal said authorities have no idea where the plane was from or where it was going. The aircraft came pretty much straight down into a holding tank filled with raw sewage at a sewage treatment facility, he said, adding that it was too dangerous for a dive team to go into the water and check for bodies or the tail number of the plane, which would indicate who owned it and where it was from.

The tank is about 20 feet deep and will have to be drained before police can determine if anyone is inside. Svardal said police assume at least one person, the pilot, is inside the downed plane. There may be passengers as well.

Police received reports of a possible crash around 4 p.m. and spent an hour and a half checking the area. Workers at the sewage treatment plant noticed damage to a railing around the tank and notified police, who determined that the plane had gone into the tank.

The tank is a couple hundred feet in diameter, Svardal said, which means the plane probably came in at a very steep angle. It is nowhere near any kind of airfield or landing strip, he said.

Svardal said Gilroy police had no reports of overdue or missing planes in the area. He said the Federal Aviation Administration is trying to determine where the plane came from and who was at the controls.