Pilot Dies After Plane Hits Home; 2 Occupants Safe

A pilot died of injuries suffered when his single-engine plane lost power and crashed Thursday morning on the roof of a home in the exclusive, gated Newport Beach community of Big Canyon, narrowly missing a woman and her young son inside the house, authorities said.

Bernard J. Nydam, 37, of San Diego died while being transported to Fountain Valley Regional Hospital, according to spokeswomen for the coroner and hospital.

The Piper Comanche PA24 had taken off from San Diego and was headed for Torrance, Federal Aviation Administration and Newport Beach police spokesmen said.

In a conversation shortly before 8 a.m. with the FAA radar control tower at El Toro Marine Corps Air Station, the pilot “said his engine went out, and he was going to try to make John Wayne” Airport, which is about three miles north of the crash site, FAA spokesman Russell Park said. “He said he lost his engine. (There was) a mechanical failure, and the engine just quit.”

Witnesses said the plane was gliding without power and its propeller was motionless as it silently approached the private community of hillside houses north of Newport Center. The aircraft smashed into the home of Michael Rogerson, chairman and founder of the Irvine-based Rogerson Aircraft Corp., a manufacturer of aircraft components and helicopters.

The plane clipped the top of a tree, just missed the kitchen where Carolyn Rogerson and her son were eating breakfast, then “did a belly-flop” on the roof of the Rogerson master bedroom, police and fire spokesmen said. The rear of the house is next to the 18th tee of the Big Canyon Country Club golf course.

“He (the pilot) was heading for a fairway landing strip, but he didn’t make it,” Newport Fire Department spokesman Russell Cheek said.

Dick Baroni, golf course facilities manager, said he watched from in front of the clubhouse as the plane glided silently overhead.

“I glanced up and there was a plane just gliding with no prop turning,” Baroni said. “If he had made it across the street, there’s a bigger fairway.”

Baroni drove in a golf cart to the crash site, where three groundskeepers were removing a tangle of branches from the airplane’s cockpit. Groundskeeper Nemecio Aguirre said that while waiting for paramedics to arrive he could hear the pilot moaning inside the plane, which sat atop a collapsed corner of the Rogerson’s house at 22 Cypress Lane Drive.

“The lady in the house was crying,” Aguirre said. “There was no explosion. She’s lucky.”

Police and FAA spokesmen said the plane appeared to have gasoline in its tanks, which sent fumes throughout the house and posed a danger of fire or explosion. The family was evacuated until the plane could be removed, authorities said.

An investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board arrived to inspect the wreckage, which was to be taken to a Long Beach salvage yard.