Probe Begins in Collision of Small Planes

Federal investigators Saturday began examinations of two damaged planes and interviews with two student pilots and their instructors in an attempt to find out why the private planes had collided over the ocean four miles south of the Long Beach Airport the day before.

The investigators’ preliminary findings were not available. No one was injured in the accident, but, said student pilot Robert Muzzy, it was close.

“Without any warning, it was just like if you can imagine what it is like to clip a telephone pole with the wing of a plane at 200 m.p.h.,” Muzzy said. “It was 2 1/2 feet from where I was sitting.”

“They were lucky,” said John Galipault, president of the Aviation Safety Institute in Ohio. “It turns out that that neck of the woods is more crowded than other places,” he said, referring to the crowded skies in the Los Angeles Basin. “Until the FAA finally puts some money into the collision avoidance system, we are going to have light planes hitting each other.”

On Practice Flight

In a telephone interview, Muzzy, 44, of Hesperia, said he was flying his Mooney 231 turbocharged single engine airplane in one of his last practice sessions for flying on instruments. An elongated visor that instrument student pilots wear prevented him from seeing out the windows.

Just before the accident, he had completed a fly-over of the Long Beach Airport, had been released by the control tower and was headed for a location 4,500 feet above the ocean that is used by aviators as a common reference point.

He said he was climbing at 600 feet a minute and flying at 120 knots when the accident took place. The plane was headed directly into the afternoon sun. It was about 3 p.m.

“The sun was causing so much glare that I had to hold my hand up to see the instruments,” he said. Beside him was flight instructor Robert King of Newhall .

“I was not aware that another plane was nearby through radio contact. I had no idea there was another plane nearby . . . It happened so quickly , “ Muzzy said. “I knew there had been an impact. I knew we hit something. Then I realized that it had to be an airplane. I turned to the instructor and said, ‘What the hell was that?’ ”

King took the controls while Muzzy ripped off the vision-restricting visor. “I realized the plane was still flying and I took control of the plane again,” he said.

The accident knocked out the air speed indicator and controls responded sluggishly, he said. Nevertheless, he was able to land the plane safely at the Long Beach Airport.

“It is a real tragedy that it happened,” Muzzy said. “I don’t know what can be done to prevent that kind of thing other than flying instrument because you are given radar warnings all the time (by air traffic controllers). There is a lot of traffic in the Los Angeles Basin.”

Student pilot Ray Hendrickson, whose Piper Cherokee Archer II collided with Muzzy’s plane, told The Times Friday that he, too, had been wearing the special visor when the accident took place. The Piper landed safely at John Wayne Airport in Orange County.

Muzzy said he would be talking with investigators of the National Transportation Safety Board on Monday. King could not be reached for comment.