11 Escape Injury in Air Collision Near Lancaster

A single-engine private airplane and a commuter turboprop collided in the sky over the Antelope Valley foothills Tuesday afternoon, but each plane managed to land safely and none of the 11 people aboard the aircraft were reported injured.

The pilot of the de Havilland Twin Otter commuter, en route from Los Angeles International Airport to Lancaster’s Fox Field, dived in an effort to avoid the collision, but the left wing of the private Cessna 172 struck the larger plane’s tail, a Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman said. The commuter plane, with two crew members and six passengers, went on to land at Fox Field despite damage to its horizontal stabilizer and the lower part of its rudder.

Thor Nordstrom, an aviation mechanic for Barnes Aviation at Fox Field, said that as the commuter passengers alighted, “I heard one guy say they heard a thump and that was it.”

Another airport worker who saw the commuter flight come in said, “The door opened, and everybody got out. Everybody was calm. They got off the plane like any other time. Everybody seemed fine. Nobody got off crying or screaming.”

The Cessna, which had taken off from Oxnard and was headed for Las Vegas with three persons aboard, landed at Palmdale Airport, about 10 miles away. Its left wing, propeller and the left side of its fuselage had “substantial damage,” according to Bob Harik, an air traffic manager at Edwards Air Force Base.

‘Fighting for Control’

A Palmdale Airport employee who declined to have his name used told an Antelope Valley Press reporter that the Cessna came in with “one wing up like he was fighting for control.” After it landed, he said, it rolled about 100 feet, jolted to a stop and spun around.

The planes collided shortly before 12:20 p.m. at an altitude of 5,800 feet about 15 miles southwest of Fox Field over the northern slope of the San Gabriel Mountains, according to the FAA’s Lancaster Flight Service Center at Fox Field.

The Cessna pilot, identified as Roger T. Jones, 31, a Ventura flight instructor, reportedly told FAA investigator Michael D. Spencer after landing that he did not see the other plane before the collision.

After the impact, Jones’ Cessna developed “stability problems” and he saw the de Havilland flying off to the left, Spencer said. Jones radioed a Mayday distress call to the tower at Palmdale.

A tower controller guided Jones to a landing, Spencer said. Jones sounded “pretty relaxed” as he communicated with the controller, Spencer said.

The FAA said both planes were operating under visual flight rules, meaning that neither plane was under the direction of FAA flight controllers. Under such circumstances, pilots are expected to vigilantly scan the sky and rely on “see-and-avoid” techniques to avert collisions.

The weather was “excellent,” said Dean Spring, air traffic manager for the FAA’s Lancaster Flight Services, with 40-mile visibility.

Although the commuter pilot did not radio a Mayday call, he did, as is customary, ask for landing instructions, according to Fox Field FAA tower manager Ken Berrow, who reported that the controller gave him wind and altimeter readings as well as runway directions.

The pilot radioed back that he had had a midair collision, Berrow said, but assured the controller that there was “no problem.” The controller, Berrow said, thought the pilot sounded “cool, calm and collected.”

The commuter plane landed “normally” at 12:22 p.m.

FAA spokeswoman Elly Brekke said the de Havilland was operated by Trans World Express (whose name it bore), a Trans World Airlines commuter line. But spokesman Rene Moreno, to whom calls were referred by TWA, said it was Flight 7591 of Resort Commuter Inc., which operates under a marketing agreement with Trans World Airlines.

Resort Commuter representative Tom Thomas said the accident occurred as the commuter plane was on its descent into Fox Field. He stressed that the pilot and co-pilot together have had more than 10,000 hours of flying time.

Other than Jones, none of those aboard either plane was immediately identified. Three of the de Havilland’s passengers got aboard a Desert Sun Airlines plane at Lancaster and returned to Los Angeles International Airport, a Desert Sun spokeswoman said.

Aircraft Grounded

Lance Scott, FAA aviation safety inspector based in Van Nuys, said he had already talked to the de Havilland crew. Both aircraft will be grounded pending investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board.

Concern over midair collisions has been heightened since the disastrous collision of an Aeromexico jetliner and a small plane over Cerritos a year ago that killed 82 people.

There have been numerous reports of near-collisions over Southern California since then, and in February, a Continental Airline jet clipped the tail of a small cargo plane taxiing across a runway as the jetliner lifted off from Los Angeles International Airport.

The Continental jet, carrying 84 passengers, continued on to its scheduled destination, Houston, without incident, and no injuries were reported.

Times staff writers Stephen Braun and Penelope McMillan contributed to this article.