A pilot who authorities said was drunk when he clipped a minivan and crashed his plane on Interstate 5 north of Castaic on Saturday posted $500 bail early Sunday…     California Highway Patrol officials said 52-year-old Marc South’s blood alcohol concentration was well above the .04 percent legal limit for private pilots. Sgt. Lewis Hall of CHP’s Newhall Station said Sunday that he could not release the Eloy, Ariz., pilot’s exact BAC.
    “I wish I could release (the BAC) to you… it was significant,” Hall said. “The seriousness (of flying drunk), in terms of misdemeanor or felony, is no more serious (than driving drunk) as far as a criminal act.
    “But the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) is going to be much more severe in their administrative investigation than, say, the DMV (Department of Motor Vehicles) would be with a driver,” he said.
    The pilot flew out of Arizona early Saturday and made stops in Blythe and La Verne on his way to Sacramento, the sergeant said.
    South told CHP officers his Cessna airplane’s engine failed, which stopped the propeller and forced him to try an emergency landing on the northbound I-5 near the Lake Hughes exit just before noon.
    As the reportedly powerless Cessna neared the ground, a landing gear clipped the top of a moving Ford Aerostar minivan. The collision tilted the plane onto its driver’s side as it hit the ground, Hall said.
    The damaged plane ground to a halt on the right shoulder of the northbound lanes. Good Samaritans pushed a wing out of the way and pulled South, who suffered only minor injuries, from the crushed cabin.
    The collision caused the Aerostar minor damage, and its passengers were unharmed, Hall said.
    South smelled strongly of alcohol and failed field sobriety tests CHP investigators conducted after the crash, CHP officials said, and though South refused medical treatment, authorities transported him to Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital for further investigation.
    “He is really lucky… You don’t normally emergency crash land and walk around afterward,” Hall said. “Unfortunately he was flying around with too much alcohol in his system, otherwise it would have pretty much been a minor accident with one vehicle being an airplane.”
    CHP officers booked South into the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station jail on misdemeanor charges of operating an aircraft while under the influence.
    South posted bail Sunday around 1:30 a.m. and is due back at the Newhall Courthouse on Sept. 10 for his arraignment.