Newport Pilot Crashes Plane, Escapes Injury
An expensive two-engine airplane landing at the airport here Wednesday afternoon crashed into a hangar and exploded into flames, destroying both the craft and the building, officials said.
Pilot Harry Lennen, 64, Newport Beach, Calif., said he escaped injury by jumping from the King Air B100 after it crashed into the small hangar and burst into flames in center of this long coastal community 34 miles north of the California border.
When asked if he considered himself lucky, Lennon answered laconically, “Oh, yes.”
Lennen said he had been planning to pick up the owner of the plane, valued at more than $1 million, when the right gear collapsed, the wing hit the ground and the aircraft veered into the building. He declined to identify the owner.
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