Two Small Planes Collide Over Sea but Land Safely

Two single-engine planes--both occupied by student pilots who were accompanied by flight instructors--collided over the ocean off Long Beach Friday afternoon. However, there were no injuries and both planes, although sustaining some damage, managed to land without incident at separate airports, the Federal Aviation Administration said.

FAA spokesman Larry Berg said a Piper Cherokee Archer II and a Mooney Aircraft Mark 20, both four-seat airplanes, collided at 3:03 p.m. about four miles south of Long Beach Airport.

At least one of the student pilots was training for his instrument rating--and thus had his vision restricted--when the collision occurred. The Piper student pilot, in an interview, said he was operating his plane while wearing an elongated visor that prevented him from seeing out the plane’s windows. He was unaware that he was close to another plane until his instructor jerked the controls from his grasp, student pilot Ray Hendrickson said.

Berg said initial accounts indicated that the Mooney’s student pilot may also have been under a visually restrictive visor, but it was unclear whether he was controlling the plane at the moment of impact.

Regardless, the hoods would not have restricted the vision of the two instructors, Berg said.

After the collision, the Piper landed at John Wayne Airport in Orange County and the Mooney at Long Beach Airport.

The FAA said the Mooney had taken off from Hesperia in San Bernardino County and was planning to return there when the accident occurred. The student pilot was identified as Robert Muzzy, 44, who owns the Mooney, the FAA said. The instructor was identified as Robert King. No other information on the men was immediately available.

Hendrickson, the 49-year-old student pilot of the Piper, said he and his instructor took off from John Wayne Airport about 40 minutes before the crash occurred. A Newport Beach attorney, Hendrickson said he had purchased the plane in October, one month after receiving his private pilot’s license. He declined to name the instructor, but the FAA identified him as Arnold Guess.

On Friday, Hendrickson said, he took the left front seat and the instructor took the right seat. He estimated that they had flown to a position eight to 10 miles off the coast and south of Long Beach when the collision occurred.

Because he had donned the visor limiting his vision to the control panel, his first indication that there was another plane nearby came when the instructor suddenly took over the controls, Hendrickson said.

“He took evasive action just before the incident and moved the controls forward. I felt the wheel being jerked out of my hands so I knew something was happening,” Hendrickson said. “I could see the damage from the cockpit.”

Sustained Gash

The Mooney sustained a gash on its left wing. The Piper sustained damage to the left wing tip and left aileron, a movable hinged section of the wing that controls the rolling movement of the plane.

Although the pilots managed to land the planes without incident, Hendrickson afterward described his plane as “unflyable.”

“How would you feel if someone ran into your car?” he asked. “I mean, it’s my baby. I’m irritated. . . . The only feeling I have is I can’t fly in my plane tomorrow. Just because one is involved in an incident doesn’t mean one stops driving.”

Both airplanes were to be inspected Friday evening by staff members of the National Transportation Safety Board, which is responsible for determining the cause of the collision, and were to be assisted by the FAA, Berg said.

Visual Rules

Because visibility was good Friday, Berg said he presumed that both planes were flying under visual flight rules, in which communication with air traffic controllers after takeoff and before landing is not required unless a plane flies into the Los Angeles Terminal Control Area surrounding Los Angeles International Airport. The ocean off of Long Beach is outside the control area.

Worries about the large number of student pilots who fly in the crowded skies of the Los Angeles Basin last month prompted the FAA to propose banning solo student flights within a 10-mile radius of Los Angeles International and 22 other major airports in the country.

Adoption of the recommendation would affect general aviation airports in Torrance, Hawthorne, Santa Monica and Compton. Student pilots who are accompanied by instructors, as in the case of Friday’s accident, would not be affected.

Takeoffs Estimated

Estimates of the percentage of takeoffs and landings at Southern California airports involving student pilots range from 15% to 20% at Compton to 38% at Santa Monica to 75% at Torrance.

According to FAA records, there were 30 midair collisions in Los Angeles County between 1964 and last Aug. 31, when an Aeromexico DC-9 and another Piper Cherokee collided over Cerritos, killing 82 people.

The midair collisions before the Cerritos crash killed 111 people and injured 32 others.

The most frequent pilot near-miss reports have occurred while flying above Long Beach Airport.

During the first nine months of 1986, six near-misses were reported between planes flying near Long Beach Airport. That was more than any airport in the county except for Los Angeles International, which had seven, and Santa Monica, which also had six.

Reports Filed

Throughout the county during that period, a total of 32 near-miss reports were filed by pilots. The majority of the incidents were reported by airline pilots who said they avoided small planes that came within 100 to 1,000 feet of them.

Aviation safety experts continually stress that while planes normally fly several miles apart, perceiving the small forms is difficult for pilots. Depending on variables like the angle of the sun, the day’s haze and the concentration of the pilots, two planes flying at conflicting angles can very quickly close to within a dangerously small distance before the pilots pick up sight of each other, these experts say.

Also contributing to this article was Times staff writer Cathleen Decker.