Southland Air Crashes Kill 11 : Worst Claims 6 Lives Near Van Nuys Airport

Eleven people died Saturday in four separate aviation accidents around Southern California, from an early morning hot-air balloon crash in Temecula to two afternoon crashes of private planes near Van Nuys Airport that killed seven people. Three were injured, one of them critically.

Elsewhere, three people were reported killed in plane crashes in Douglasville, Ga., and Atlantic City, N.J.

In Oregon, a small plane crashed in a mining area in the rugged Cascade Mountains east of Eugene. A Federal Aviation Administration spokesman in Seattle said he did not know how many were aboard but there appeared to be no survivors.

About two miles south of Van Nuys Airport all six people aboard a twin-engine Cessna 320 were killed when the plane tipped sideways and crashed at about 5:30 p.m. in a field in the Sepulveda Dam Recreation Area, Fire Department spokesman Jim Wells said.

The identities of those victims were unknown.

About two hours earlier, the pilot of a Socata TB20 Trinidad was killed when his single-engine plane barely skimmed over heavy traffic on Roscoe Boulevard, crashed into a curb and exploded in flames about 200 yards short of the northern end of the airport’s runway, Wells said.

The pilot, who was alone in the aircraft, was burned beyond recognition and his identity was undetermined. No one on the ground was injured and no cars were struck.

The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation and Safety Board were investigating all four crashes.

At about 8:15 Saturday morning, three hot-air balloonists, apparently participating in a balloon show as part of a grape festival in Temecula, south of Riverside, were aloft when they brushed into electric power lines, sheriff’s officials said.

The power lines snapped the cables connecting the gondola to the balloon, dumping the three men about 30 feet to the ground, an official said. The gondola fell on them, killing two of them and critically injuring the third.

The dead in the balloon accident were identified as pilot Leon Flanagan, 60, of Huntington Beach, and Dale Cron, 60, of Perris. Another passenger, Thomas Benson, 53, of Montebello, was in critical condition with head and internal injuries at Riverside General Hospital.

About 15 minutes later, at the Chino Airport, where an unrelated air show was taking place, a Piper Cherokee from Arizona crashed after it landed once, then asked to try the landing again, Fire Battalion Chief Jeff Gaul said.

As the plane climbed, the power appeared to fail, and the plane crashed about 100 yards beyond the runway moments after the pilot broadcast a “Mayday,” said San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Deputy Danny Scaturro. Two people died and two were injured. One of them, Kenneth Kirsman of Arizona, was in stable condition at Pomona Valley Hospital.

Wing Nicks Pine Tree

No one was injured in a mid-morning incident near Lancaster, when a 44-year-old Mojave man and his 14-year-old passenger nicked a 60-foot tall pine tree with the wing of their Cessna 150, sending the plane tumbling to the ground.

An estimated 12,000 people attended an Aviation Day ’86 festival at Van Nuys Airport Saturday, but neither of the planes was involved in the festival, said Airport Manager Charles D. Zeman Jr. The festival, a public relations activity by the city-owned airport and its tenants, invites the public onto the grounds to see aircraft, some of which offer rides.

The two crashes were the first this year near the Van Nuys Airport, which Zeman said is the third busiest airport in the world in terms of the number of takeoffs and landings.

Zeman said the Trinidad was leased from Beech Aero Club, which operates out of the airport. He did not know if the Cessna 320 was based at Van Nuys.

Felix Tapia, who leases the cornfield in the Sepulveda Dam Recreation Area where the Cessna crashed, said he heard a roaring sound which “sounded like an engine malfunctioning” and saw the plane 40 to 50 feet above the ground, dropping rapidly with its wings perpendicular to the ground.

Three men were thrown about 50 feet out of the plane on impact, still strapped in their seats, Tapia said. There was no fire or explosion, Tapia said, adding that when he and two of his workers raced to the wreckage they found one of the men was still moving. The man died at the scene a short time later.

Heavy Traffic on Street

FAA and fire investigators said the Trinidad crash could have been much more tragic as the plane came within feet of crashing into heavy traffic on Roscoe Boulevard.

Barbara J. Kehoe of Northridge was stopped at a traffic signal on Roscoe Boulevard when she saw the Trinidad approaching the runway “about 100 yards behind a big Army plane,” later identified by airport officials as a California Air National Guard C-130 Hercules, one of 16 such planes based at the airport.

She said the Trinidad was rocking back and forth and began tilting to the pilot’s right side when it collided with the curb.

The plane exploded in flames when it struck the curb, Kehoe said.

Another witness, Daniel G. Naba of Newhall, provided a different version of the crash, saying the plane appeared to flip over in the air and crash upside down into the street.

“It was like the wind took it and flipped it over,” Naba said. “It just went down and exploded after doing its little flip.”

FAA Investigator Michael Spencer said it may be several weeks before investigations into the two crashes are completed.