Plane Taking Off From Meadowlark Crashes; 2 Survive

A restored 1941 biplane clipped two houses, spun around and crashed nose-first into a back-yard fence just north of the runway of Huntington Beach’s Meadowlark Airport Wednesday, but the pilot and passenger in the open-cockpit craft walked away with minor injuries.

No one on the ground was hurt, although the bright yellow PT-13 Navy Stearman crashed through onthe fence that Albert H. (Hamm) Ward--a former flight instructor--was working on and landed a mere 25 feet away.

The crash occurred when northeasterly Santa Ana winds suddenly shifted into a tail wind as the fabric-covered biplane was taking off, preventing it from gaining sufficient altitude, authorities said.

The pilot, Jack H.T. Prentice, 65, of Balboa, a retired U.S. Navy commander, and his passenger, Edward J. McKenna, 49, of Corona del Mar, were taken to Humana Hospital-Westminster. A Fire Department spokesman said Prentice was dazed and had a large bump on his forehead. The windshield of the back seat--where the pilot sits--was cracked, apparently by the impact of his head.

McKenna was treated for a head injury and released. But Prentice, who suffered a head cut, was admitted for observation and listed in stable condition.

A policeman on patrol in the area saw the airplane go down about 12:55 p.m. and radioed for help, Huntington Beach Fire Department Capt. Joe Mohney said. The officer then helped pull both men from the plane, according to witnesses.

Meadowlark Airport has been the subject of much controversy between private pilots and some residents, who have claimed that planes flying in and out of there pose a safety risk for the surrounding residential neighborhoods. The private airfield will close in September to make way for a shopping center and condominiums.

Normally, airplanes take off in a southwesterly direction from the runway of the scruffy, aging airfield. But on Wednesday, because there was a prevailing Santa Ana wind--and planes must take off into the wind--the aircraft flew in the opposite direction, authorities said.

Former flight instructor Ward, who lives immediately north of the runway and who also is a member of the Meadowlark Airport Board, said he noticed the wind shift immediately while sawing wood to build a back-yard fence for the house next door, which he also owns and rents out.

“I got a face full of sawdust, and he (the pilot) couldn’t get enough altitude,” Ward said. Because of the sudden tail wind, he explained, the plane was pushed along the runway faster than normal.

“He was covering too much ground, too fast. It’s a short runway, and here’s the result,” he said, motioning to a piece of wing tip that clung to a tree in his front yard. Ward said he could not say whether the pilot handled the situation correctly, but added:

“Relative to the conditions he found himself in, he minimized damage and saved his ass.”

The airplane, Ward said, came off the runway low and its propeller hit a palm tree and then the roof of his home in the 5300 block of Heil Avenue. The left wing hit a tall pine tree and the plane spun around, hitting another tall tree and the roof of the house next door. On its way down, it sheared off the windshield of Ward’s powerboat, parked between the two houses, and plowed through the existing back-yard fence of the rental house.

The plane finally came to a stop in the alley behind Ward’s houses, its nose crashing though a back-yard block wall of a house that faces on Caliente Drive, barely missing the back-yard pool. No one was home at that house when the plane crashed, other than a dog and a rabbit. Police captured the rabbit, which had escaped through the broken fence, and put him in a hutch on the property, then tied up the family’s dog.

When 15-year-old Christopher Coyle returned home from Marina High School 2 hours later, he found a policeman sitting in his front yard and the crumpled airplane in the back yard of the home that his family moved into 3 months ago. He checked on his rabbit, Tipper, and dog, Matthew, then telephoned his mother, Elizabeth Wells, to tell her of the crash. “She didn’t say much,” he said after hanging up. “What could she say?”

Co-owner Art Nerio, who runs the family airfield, insisted after the crash that Meadowlark is “a safe airport.”

Art Nerio, along with his brother, Dick, have owned the airstrip since 1952. In recent years, as the Nerios suggested different development plans to the city, the airport has become run-down.

The Huntington Beach City Council last February approved the Nerios’ request to build a 15-acre shopping center and 600 condominiums and single-family homes on the property, east of Bolsa Chica Street, between Warner and Heil avenues.

That development plan has been met with mixed reviews.

Pilots have said they would miss the facility, which is one of only two remaining airports in the county devoted exclusively to small planes. And some residents of surrounding neighborhoods have said traffic from the new development will be worse than living with the potential danger of airplane crashes.

But other residents had pleaded with the city to close Meadowlark because, as one said, “it’s a time bomb waiting to go off.”

Ward, who could not estimate the damage caused to his houses and boat by Wednesday’s crash, said he still feels confident about living so close to the runway’s end. He did not feel in danger even as he saw the plane heading toward him, he said.

“It was all happening very slow,” he said. “I just watched to see where he was going to go.”

But Ward’s wife, Elaine, a pilot who ran the airport until she sold her lease 25 years ago, said she was a bit shaken by the crash. She was in the house and heard a window break when a torn-off piece of a wing burst through it, but she was more concerned by how close the plane crashed to her husband.

“I know it (the airport) is supposed to close in September,” Elaine Ward said, surveying the short distance between the plane and the place where her husband had been working. “But it wouldn’t make me feel bad if it closed sooner.”

Times staff writer Richard Beene contributed to this story.

MEADOWLARK AIRPORT ACCIDENTS

June 14, 1987--Single-engine plane crashes in eucalyptus grove after running out of gas. One killed, four injured.

July 30, 1986--Small private plane tries to make emergency landing, collides with car parked near end of runway. No one seriously injured.

Jan. 26, 1986--Small aircraft hits sign and telephone poles during attempted landing. No one injured.

Sept. 29, 1985--Single-engine plane loses altitude and hits Quonset hut on takeoff. Pilot slightly hurt.

Sept. 21, 1985--Single-engine plane crashes through window of unoccupied building, slightly injuring four passengers.

Sept. 5, 1985--Plane runs out of gas and slams into hangar. No one injured.

June 23, 1983--While attempting a landing, plane crashes into unoccupied houses near runway, missing children playing nearby. Pilot slightly injured.

May 15, 1983--Pilot of vintage biplane makes forced landing on Pacific Coast Highway minutes after takeoff. No one injured.

May 12, 1982--Pilot walks away from wreckage after plane lands on top of unoccupied mobile home.

May 25, 1981--Two planes collide on runway. No one seriously injured.

Nov. 30, 1979--Two-seat plane overshoots runway and comes to rest with its propeller jammed through the wall of a bar. Pilot suffers broken nose; no one hurt in the bar.