The Region - News from May 22, 1987

A broken throttle control may have caused the crash of a private plane that injured four people near the Santa Monica Airport, federal aviation officials said. The device that controls the engine speed recently had been replaced because of a Federal Aviation Administration directive warning private pilots of possible problems with it, said Jeff Rich, an investigator for the National Transportation Safety Board. The broken throttle control arm was “just flapping in the breeze” before the Cessna 182 crashed, Rich said, quoting passengers. The plane’s pilot, two passengers, and a woman in a car the plane hit were injured in the accident.