Pilot Arrested, Charged With Manslaughter in Plane Crash

An Encino pilot was arrested late Wednesday after the district attorney’s office filed a warrant charging him with two counts of involuntary manslaughter and one count of flying under the influence of alcohol during an April 9 Malibu-area plane crash that took the lives of two passengers.

Prosecutors refused Wednesday afternoon to release details concerning the warrant for pilot Roger Amiran, 23, who was arrested at his home by sheriff’s deputies. But in a media advisory, the office said that Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner will be available to answer questions this morning regarding “an unusual, apparently first of its kind, criminal filing involving an airplane pilot.”

Rescued From Water

Amiran was piloting a private, four-seat Piper PA-28 Warrior, which crashed about 500 yards offshore near Malibu Colony about 9:15 p.m. Amiran and passenger Laurie Ann Thuer, 21, of Simi Valley, who had been sitting in a rear seat, were rescued from the water by the crew of a Coast Guard helicopter after having become entangled in kelp while trying to swim ashore, officials said.

However, passengers John Terrance Harris of Northridge and Mathew Frey of Canoga Park, both 22, disappeared by the time rescuers arrived.

A day later, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Capt. Vance Kirkpatrick questioned whether the crash may have been caused by the pilot having flown so low that a wing struck the water when he tried to turn.

Kirkpatrick, commander of air operations for the Sheriff’s Department, publicly accused the pilot of “definitely . . . flying too low for safety. . . .”

“At night, your depth perception is poor, and he probably just got too low and hit the ocean,” he said.

The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board were to investigate the accident. But officials of the two agencies could not be reached for comment Wednesday night concerning whether their investigations have been completed.

In the arrest warrant filed with court officials Wednesday, Amiran is accused of two counts of involuntary manslaughter stemming from the deaths of Harris and Frey. He is also charged with unlawfully operating an aircraft while under the influence of intoxicating liquor, which is described as “the proximate cause” of harming the passengers.

The warrant was filed by Deputy Dist. Atty. Lonnie A. Felker, who is a licensed pilot.

Shortly after the crash, Amiran told investigators that the plane’s instruments showed the aircraft was 200 feet above the water just before it crashed, according to sheriff’s officials.

Amiran also told authorities that he made a banking turn to the left and the plane suddenly pitched down and hit the ocean. He added that he twice dived under the water to look for other passengers before he and Thuer began swimming toward shore.

Amiran and his passengers had set out from Van Nuys Airport on a night sightseeing flight. They were returning along the coast after having flown over the Queen Mary liner in Long Beach when the accident occurred, officials said shortly after the accident.