Newport Beach : Agency Still Probing 3-Fatality Plane Crash

National Transportation Safety Board investigators said Thursday that they will interview the wife of student pilot Barry King next week to ascertain “where he was drinking” before his plane crashed off the coast of Newport Beach last month.

Blood tests performed by the county coroner’s office indicated that King, 32, had traces of cocaine in his blood in addition to a blood-alcohol reading of .11, just above the level at which a person is presumed by law to be too drunk to drive.

“Our job is to investigate the facts, conditions and circumstances surrounding an accident, and what they were doing prior to the flight is pertinent,” said Donald Llorente, a senior NTSB investigator.

King, a Newport Beach resident, died along with his instructor, Phillip Peffley, 20, and Benigno Villa, 38, in the March 2 crash.

The rented four-seat plane, a single-engine Piper Archer, went down late at night in 58 feet of water about a third of a mile off the Newport coast.

“I don’t know whether we can come up with any safety measures to prevent any recurrences of this nature,” Llorente said Thursday. “Maybe by making the pilot community aware of this kind of thing, we can prevent other deaths and accidents of this nature.”

Llorente said it is hoped that interviews with King’s wife will shed light on King’s activities during the eight hours preceding the accident.

Federal regulations prohibit pilots from drinking alcohol in the eight hours before flight time.