3 Escape Serious Injury as Plane Whacks Car

A light plane trying to make an emergency landing at Hawthorne Municipal Airport came down short of the runway and struck a sports car at a busy intersection Tuesday, crushing the front of the car but causing no serious injuries.

Airport Administrator Robert Trimborn said it was “totally amazing” that the single-engine Navion airplane missed power and telephone lines over the street and that the pilot and two men in the car were able to walk away from the 10:26 a.m. accident.

In a similar incident 30 minutes later, a twin-engine Seneca lost power while on approach to El Monte Airport and was forced to land on Arroyo High School’s football field, where it crashed through a chain-link fence.

The pilot of that aircraft and a passenger were not injured.

Headed for Torrance

According to the Federal Aviation Administration, the pilot in the Hawthorne accident, Paul Arthur Fiala, 40, of Springvalle, said he had taken off earlier in the morning from the Porterville, Calif., area and was headed for Torrance Airport when his engine failed.

FAA inspector Gerald E. Parrot said Fiala received clearance from the Hawthorne control tower to land there, but the plane came down about a quarter of a mile south of the airport, striking the front of a red Porsche 911 at Northrop and Prairie avenues.

The driver of the car, Brian Lastrapes, 23, of Los Angeles, and his passenger, Harold Jones, 22, of Inglewood, suffered minor cuts and bruises and were treated at a nearby hospital and released, Hawthorne police said.

Mark Morgan, 14, of Hawthorne said he saw the crash while riding his bicycle along Prairie Avenue. The sputtering plane was about to land safely between traffic when a burst of power propelled it into the air and onto the Porsche, he said.

The plane’s propeller cut through the right front of the hood and the car’s windshield popped out. The impact split the plane’s fuselage and snapped off a wheel and part of a wing.

After hitting the car, the plane spun around and came to rest on a sidewalk.

Morgan said the pilot and the driver got out first, followed a moment later by the car’s passenger. The teen-ager said he heard Lastrapes yell, “I thought you were dead” as Jones emerged from the car.

Fiala said he did not want to talk about the accident. Lastrapes and Jones could not be reached for comment.

Airport officials said the cause of the plane’s engine failure has not been determined. But the airport administrator said Fiala demonstrated skill by avoiding the power lines over the road.

“With what he had, the pilot did an excellent job,” Trimborn said.

Hawthorne police said Fiala was flying to Torrance to meet his brother for a recreational flight in the plane, which he owns. There was no estimate of damage to the plane.