Investigators Search for Cause of Wayne’s Crash

Federal investigators Thursday continued to seek a cause for the crash that killed KFI airborne traffic reporter Bruce Wayne, 52.

Wayne’s blue and white Cessna Cardinal slammed into a parked tractor-trailer rig Wednesday morning shortly after he had taken off from Fullerton Municipal Airport. Witnesses have told authorities the plane was backfiring or misfiring before it went into a tight left turn at between 300 and 500 feet, crashing at the rear of a wholesale food warehouse half a mile east of the airport. The aircraft exploded on impact.

“I do not have any doubt that the aircraft did have a power problem,” Don Llorente of the National Transportation Safety Board said Thursday after he had dismantled and inspected the plane’s engine. He was accompanied by a representative from Avco Lycoming, its manufacturer.

The engine, a brand-new unit when it was installed in 1983, showed “no evidence of pre-existing malfunctions or failures,” Llorente said, adding, “If it was producing any power (on impact), it was certainly very little.”

Llorente said reports by witnesses, one of them an aircraft mechanic, that the engine was backfiring might indicate an ignition system malfunction. But it may not be possible to pinpoint that as a cause, he explained, because the magneto--a critical system component similar to a distributor-- was melted by intense heat in the fire after the crash.

Although one of the engine’s four cylinders had lost compression before the crash, that did not appear to be a contributing factor in the accident, according to Llorente. Likewise, samples taken from the fuel truck and main fuel storage tank at the airport did not show any evidence of contamination, he said.

The next area to be inspected, Llorente said, is the propeller, which “will be disassembled tomorrow to make sure it was operating properly.”

Investigators also want to look at the aircraft’s maintenance records, but so far they have not been able to locate the plane’s mechanic, John Grodahl of Hemet.

The Orange County coroner’s office said an exact cause of Wayne’s death has not been determined and further tests are pending.

Meanwhile Thursday, it was announced that a memorial may be erected to Wayne at the Fullerton airport, which he had flown out of for many years.

Wayne, who lived in Fullerton, had logged more than 30,000 hours as a pilot and had spent nearly 25 years as an airborne traffic reporter, first in Boston and then in Southern California.

He had worked for KFI since 1970, providing information on road and traffic conditions during both the morning and evening rush hours.

Wayne is survived by his wife, Lois; a son, David, of Boise, Ida., and a daughter, Linda, of Orange.

Funeral services will be conducted at 11:30 a.m. Wednesday in the Old North Church at Forest Lawn, Hollywood Hills.