Flight Instructor Killed, 3 Injured When Small Planes Crash Over Ventura County

A flight instructor was killed and three people were injured, one critically, in a collision Friday between two small private airplanes in the skies north of Oxnard, Ventura County Sheriff’s Department officials said.

Donald Waldman, 35, of Ventura, who was also a dentist, died of massive head injuries after the Cessna 172 plane he was piloting collided with a second plane and then crashed into a field about five miles northwest of the Camarillo Airport shortly before 10:30 a.m., Sheriff’s Lt. Lou Combs said.

A passenger with Waldman, Ernie Strong, 45, was taking flying lessons at the time, Combs said. Strong was listed in critical condition at the Ventura County Medical Center, a hospital spokesman said.

The second plane, also a Cessna 172, landed safely at the Camarillo Airport, Combs said. The pilot, Robert Bruce, 38, and an adult passenger, Mike Creadick, both of Camarillo, sustained minor injuries, he said.

Both men were treated and released from Pleasant Valley Hospital in Camarillo, Combs said. Two of the men’s sons, Kevin Bruce and Ryan Creadick, were also passengers but were not injured, he said. The ages of the boys and of Mike Creadick were not immediately known.

Officials of the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the collision, a Federal Aviation Administration spokesman said.

Waldman, who was a certified flight instructor with Channel Islands Aviation of Camarillo, had left the airport along with Strong about 9 a.m., flight school director Al Hauth said. Strong, who is a certified pilot, was practicing instrument navigation, he said.

Waldman had worked as a flight instructor for the school about three days a week since being hired there last August, Hauth said. “Flying was not a hobby for him; he treated it as a full-time profession,” he said.

Waldman has two small children and his wife is pregnant with a third child, Hauth said.

The plane with four aboard had left the Santa Paula Airport minutes before the collision, sheriff’s spokesman Combs said. Bruce was able to land the plane despite damage to the windshield, propeller and cowling of the craft, Ventura County Fire Department officials said.