Crash Causes Airport’s 1st Death in Decade

The crash Sunday night of a single-engine plane carrying five people was the 10th in the last 10 years at Meadowlark Airport in Huntington Beach--but it was the first in which someone was killed.

Glenn A. Hata, 33, of Inglewood died while trying to make an emergency landing after the plane he was piloting ran out of gas. The plane tore through a eucalyptus grove and crashed near Heil Avenue and Graham Place. Hata was pronounced dead at Fountain Valley Regional Hospital at 10:20 p.m. Sunday.

All four passengers were injured. On Monday, William Ricksecker, 41, of San Diego was in critical condition at the Fountain Valley hospital; James Tolentz, 43, of Huntington Beach was listed in fair condition at Long Beach Memorial Hospital, and Randall Vancil, 22, address unknown, was in fair condition at the Long Beach hospital. Glen Vanpeske, 28, of Oceanside was treated for minor injuries and released from the Fountain Valley hospital.

The crash occurred about 9:45 p.m. when Hata tried to make the landing after the Cessna 210 Turbo Centurion ran out of gas on its way from Monterey to John Wayne Airport.

The plane plunged through eucalyptus trees near the northeast end of the landing strip and crashed in a lot about 25 feet from a Mormon church.

John Jones, a maintenance man at the Huntington Beach California North Stake of the Jesus Christ Church of Latter-day Saints, said people in the church heard the crash but did not see it because of a brick wall between the church property and the lot.

The airport is owned by the Nerio family, who intend to close it. A proposal to build a shopping center and 350 homes on the 65-acre plot of land, bordered by Warner Avenue and Bolsa Chica Street, is scheduled to go before the Huntington Beach Planning Commission in a special meeting on July 28.

Art Nerio said in a telephone interview Monday that there is “no change in the plans.”

He was unmoved by complaints that closing the airport would worsen the county’s space crunch for small aircraft.

“They (critics) have their own opinion,” he said.

Don Dodge, a member of the Meadowlark Airport Board, an advisory group composed of pilots and residents who live near the airport, called the accident unfortunate. But he said he “would still like to see the airport retained.”

“If you look at other airports, there have been accidents,” Dodge said. “As an airport operation, I think (Meadowlark) is important.”

“People like to blow airplane crashes way out of proportion,” he said, adding that there have been eight car crashes in 10 years near his home on Warner Avenue, just south of the airport.

Replying to criticism that the landing strip is too short and poorly lit, Dodge said it is longer than 60% of the state’s landing strips. The paved portion is 2,100 feet long, he said.

“It’s more of a psychological thing,” he added. “Some pilots are petrified of the place.”

Moreover, if the airport were closed, the 150 small aircraft there would have to be transferred “quite a long way from here,” he said. “There is no place left in the county.”

“We want a solution, an outright purchase or a land swap between the city or county and the Nerio family,” Dodge said. Nerio, however, said the family would prefer the shopping center and homes.