PATTERSON, CA - A pilot and her passenger managed to walk away after their plane crashed near Patterson Tuesday morning.

Anthony Bejaran of the Stanislaus County Sheriff's Department said the plane crashed in the area of Elm and Almond Avenue just after 11 a.m.

The pilot told deputies she tried to make it to the airport off Highway 33 after she lost throttle control, but she was unable to do so and attempted an emergency landing in an alfalfa field.

During the attempted emergency landing, the plane's front wheel caught a hole, causing it to flip and come to a rest on its roof, said Bejaran.

According to Bejaran, the pilot and passenger had both gotten out of the plane before emergency personnel arrived on scene.

The NTSB were called to the scene to investigate the incident.

FRESNO, Calif. (AP) - Four more California historic sites are joining the Cesar Chavez National Monument as places worthy of federal landmark protections. 

Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar announced Knight's Ferry Bridge in Stanislaus County, Drakes Bay Historic Archaeological District in Marin County, the U.S. Post Office and Courthouse in San Francisco and the U.S. Post Office and Courthouse in Los Angeles are considered important to the nation's heritage. 

The 379-foot Knights Ferry covered bridge is one of 100 of its type surviving. The Drake's Bay site is where the English navigator first camped on American soil. The San Francisco courthouse is an example of Beaux-Arts design, while the courthouse in Los Angeles was a scene of legal battles for Mexican-American civil rights. 

The National Historic Landmarks program qualifies sites for federal preservation advice.

FRESNO, Calif. (AP) - Health officials are set to draw blood from hundreds of Yosemite National Park employees as part of a research project that aims to help scientists better understand a potentially deadly virus carried by deer mice. 

The hantavirus killed three people and sickened six other visitors to the park this summer. 

Officials say more than 300 year-round employees have volunteered to have their blood drawn and answer a questionnaire. 

Park epidemiologists and doctors with the California Department of Public Health are trying to determine how many people might have been exposed to hantavirus and why some people get sick and others don't. 

The virus is transmitted on airborne particles of mouse urine and feces, but researchers say little else is known about it. It was first detected in 1993. 

No park employees were among those sickened this summer.