A small Cessna 172 flipped over at John Wayne Airport on Nov. 7 after what the pilot described as jet blast from a Boeing jet sent it out of control while it was taxiing behind United Airlines Flight 2611. Two people were inside the aircraft, and neither was hurt.
The plane overturned at around 2:30 p.m., turning an ordinary ground movement into a rare accident at one of the region’s busiest airports. Jason Ryu wrote in an incident report on Sunday that the jet had increased engine power to enter the runway and that the blast moved the aircraft so suddenly he could not keep control. He said the plane pitched forward and overturned completely.
That account matches the version given by Kunal Gawli, who said the pilot could not maintain enough distance from the Boeing jet because of ongoing construction near Dove Street. He wrote that the jet blast lifted the tail of N57BM, after which the aircraft rolled forward and flipped entirely. The plane was owned by the Orange County Flight Center.
What stands out is that neither a John Wayne Airport spokesperson nor the Federal Aviation Administration used the words jet blast in their brief statements, even though both the pilot and the flight student did. Instead, both said an investigation into what happened is underway. AnnaSophia Servin said there were no injuries reported and that there was no impact to operations.
For now, the most important unanswered detail is how close the Cessna was to the Boeing jet when it was hit hard enough to overturn. The reports leave that distance unclear, but they do show a chain of events that ended with a small plane on its back and a federal investigation into how it happened.
