Local News in Brief : Crash Survivor Testifies
A survivor of a small plane crash in which two passengers were killed testified Friday that the pilot guzzled a beer shortly before takeoff, then later flew so low over the ocean that “it was as if you were on a boat and could just stick your feet in the water.”
Laurie Anne Thuer, 22, of Simi Valley, said the last thing she remembers before the rented Piper Cherokee Warrior hit the ocean off the coast of Malibu was the pilot saying, “Look, we’re so close we can get water on the wing tip.”
Seconds later, she said, the plane dipped, hit the ocean twice, then crashed and started to fill with water.
“I didn’t feel anyone moving around me,” Thuer said. “I sat back and just waited to die.”
Thuer testified in a Municipal Court preliminary hearing for the pilot, Roger Amiran, 24, of Encino, who is charged with two counts of murder in the April 9 drowning deaths of passengers John Harris of Northridge and Mathew Frey of Canoga Park, both 22.
Thuer and Amiran were rescued by the Coast Guard 45 minutes after the crash.
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