Demonstration Flight Ends in Crash; 1 Man Fatally Hurt, 2nd Injured

A single-engine plane being demonstrated to a prospective buyer crashed and burned shortly after takeoff from Compton Airport on Tuesday, fatally injuring one man and critically injuring another.

A third man in the aircraft was not seriously hurt.

The plane, a Piper Tri-pacer, struck two utility poles and narrowly missed a home when it burst into flames and crashed in the 2100 block of Alondra Boulevard, about a block southwest of the runway.

Residents helped two men whose clothing was afire from the wreckage, wrapping them in blankets to put out the flames, police said. The third man was apparently thrown from the plane.

The men were taken by medical helicopter to Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center, where one of the burned men was identified as Jack Dunlap. He was reported in very critical condition with burns over his entire body, hospital spokesman William Delgardo said.

The second badly burned man died. His name was not released.

The third man, Michael Bellio, 46, was only shaken up, Delgardo said.

All three men were believed to be from San Diego County, officers said.

James Wansley, Compton Airport operations director, said he saw the plane go down the runway and heard its engine sputtering.

“I thought he had pulled off the runway,” Wansley said. “I turned around to do something else, and then I saw the smoke.”

David Hudson was standing in his back yard when he heard the plane sputtering overhead.

“I looked up and it was no more than two or three feet above the (utility) wires,” he said. “When it got caught in the wires, it was like a kite getting caught.”

Hudson said the plane slammed into one utility pole, knocking it down. It hit a second pole, broke apart and burst into flames, he said. The plane fell beside his house, scattering wreckage in the yard where he was standing with his mother. Neither was injured.

Willie Johnson had just left a market across from the airport when he heard “what seemed like an engine stall. It went putt, putt, putt. I work at LAX, and I know what an engine stall sounds like.”

Johnson said the engine was “missing, then it just gave out. The plane banked on in, but then it hit a light pole.”

After the crash, two men attempted to crawl out, Johnson said. Neighborhood youngsters “tried to help them put the fire out,” he said.

Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputies Harry Bovie and Michael Claus were half a mile west of the crash site when they saw smoke and rushed to the scene.

“There were 10 or 15 residents trying to pull the men to safety,” Claus said. “It was great, really great.”

Times staff writer Amy Stevens contributed to this story.