Luck May Run Out, Airport Neighbors Fear

Fullerton Municipal Airport, one of Southern California’s oldest airfields, is also one of its most controversial, with residents and city officials often complaining that the private planes using it crash too frequently.

The crash of a light plane Wednesday into a Buena Park neighborhood a mile east of the airport did nothing to quiet those complaints.

“This is the third (crash) in the last six months,” said Buena Park Mayor Donna L. Chessen. “(This neighborhood is) being used as a landing field again.”

No one was killed Wednesday when a Cessna 152 being used for flight training bounced off one house and then crashed into another at Darlington Street and Artesia Boulevard. Nor was anyone killed in two other crashes that occurred near the airport this year. But last year--when there were also three off-site crashes, according to airport officials--two men in a Cessna 210 died when their plane ran out of fuel and smashed into a Buena Park warehouse a mile from the runway.

And in 1987, a Piper Cherokee Arrow that had just taken off from the airport crashed into an apartment complex in Buena Park, killing the pilot and setting a fire that damaged four buildings. No one in the complex was injured, in part because many residents had gone to a parade nearby, officials said at the time.

In fact, Fullerton airport officials say, no one on the ground has ever been killed because of a crashing plane.

But that is mere coincidence and certainly no reason to feel safe, Chessen says.

“We can’t continue to be this lucky all the time,” she said. “I don’t know where we go from here.”

Wednesday’s crash rekindled residents’ fears about their proximity to the airport.

“It’s very scary,” said Robin Rennaker, a 32-year-old mother of two who lives about two blocks from the crash site. “The planes sure fly low enough. . . . It’s no surprise anymore . . . They fly so low a lot of times that you can actually see the people’s faces who are flying the planes. For a housing area, that’s awful low.”

Debbie Perez said residents in her neighborhood worry about airplanes from the Fullerton airport flying directly above Fern Drive Elementary School. In 1986, a plane crashed across the street from the school. The students, who normally would have been coming out of school at the time of the crash, had been sent home early that day because of teacher-parent conferences.

“Of course, we’re still concerned about our safety,” Perez said. “Two and a half years ago, we had an airplane crash on our street and flip over and wind up on my neighbor’s front yard. It’s really bad here.”

Not a Problem

Other residents, however, view the airport with more equanimity.

“The airport has been there ever since I moved here 50 years ago,” said Louisa Rogers, 83, who lives next door to one of the houses struck Wednesday. “It hasn’t been a problem for me.”

Rogers said the crash Wednesday was the second since she moved to the neighborhood, and she said that the possibility of more crashes only worries her very little. “Why worry?” she said. “Take the worry when it gets here.”

Fullerton Municipal Airport was built on the site of a former sewer-treatment facility 62 years ago. Since Huntington Beach’s Meadowlark Airport closed two weeks ago, Fullerton is now the county’s only civilian airfield besides busy John Wayne Airport.

Since 1978, when there were 253,000 takeoffs and landings at Fullerton, the airport’s business has dropped considerably, to just 161,000 takeoffs and landings last year. By contrast, John Wayne Airport handles more than 528,000 a year.

The airport was almost expanded to include regular jet service in 1971 under an ambitious plan put forward by the Fullerton city manager’s office. But Fullerton residents successfully fought the plan, and regular air carriers have abandoned the facility altogether.

The Federal Aviation Administration, which had pushed for the expansion, was strongly critical of the city’s decision to drop expansion plans, citing the regional shortage of aircraft facilities.

More recently, a furor erupted in 1986 when the City Council voted to allow some small, private jets to land at the airfield. A group of residents mounted petition drives to recall council members and overturn the ordinance, but both moves failed, and small jets are now allowed to use the airport, although few do.

Staff writers David Reyes, Catherine Gewertz and Mary Lou Fulton contributed to this report.

Some Past Crashes Around Fullerton Airport

* March 20, 1989

A student pilot and his instructor walked away unhurt after their single-engine Piper Warrior 11 lost power and crashed on a street minutes after takeoff. The pilot was flying to obtain an instrument rating license.

* Dec. 17, 1988

Two men died after their Cessna 210 ran out of fuel and crashed into a Buena Park warehouse while attempting an emergency landing at the airport. Witnesses saw the plane approach the airport from the west before crashing into a Lucky Food Centers warehouse a mile from the runway.

* Sept. 23, 1988

Two women aboard a Piper Cherokee 6 were injured after they crashed in an industrial park near the airport in the 2300 block of Raymer Avenue in Fullerton.

* Dec. 11, 1987

A pilot who obtained his license only four months earlier crashed his plane on a street near a busy intersection in Buena Park after the engine died just after takeoff from the airport. The pilot was uninjured.

* Oct. 17, 1987

The pilot of a Piper Cherokee Arrow was killed after he lost control of his airplane after takeoff and struck a Buena Park apartment complex. No one else was injured, although the crash set off a fire that damaged four buildings. The airplane appeared to lose power and its left wing clipped a palm tree, sending the plane cartwheeling into the complex.

* June 4, 1986

Popular radio traffic announcer Bruce Wayne died when his Cessna Cardinal crashed shortly after takeoff from the airport. Airport officials dedicated a new hangar in March in memory of Wayne, who reported freeway conditions for the KFI-AM radio station.

Source: Los Angeles Times

FAILED TAKEOFF

Light plane crashes into home. Part I, Page 1

CLOSE CALL

Pilot goes nose first into Santa Ana River. Part II, Page 3