Stricken Aircraft Plunges Into 2 Houses; No One Seriously Hurt

A experimental, single-engine, kit-built airplane lost power over West Los Angeles late Thursday afternoon and slammed into two houses, setting off a spectacular fire in one and heavily damaging a van parked in front of another, authorities said. No one was seriously injured.

The pilot, a man in his 30s, walked away uninjured from the crash in the 2900 block of South Greenfield Avenue, police said. A passenger suffered minor injuries and was taken to UCLA Medical Center, officers said. Neither was identified.

No one on the ground was injured, authorities said.

The airplane struck the roof of a two-story residence just before 5:30 p.m., skipped over a one-story house next door and then slammed into a third house, setting it on fire. The flames destroyed the home, but the emotionally shaken occupant was unhurt, fire officials said.

A plume of smoke rising from the scene caused rush-hour traffic to slow on the nearby San Diego and Santa Monica freeways.

As the plane broke apart, pieces landed on a van parked in a front yard on South Greenfield.

A Federal Aviation Administration official said the plane was on approach to Santa Monica Municipal Airport when the pilot reported an engine problem.

“I saw a plane coming in that had its engine off, and I was thinking that that plane was in trouble,” said Richard Rohaly, a general contractor and pilot who was sitting on his front porch in the neighborhood watching planes on approach and listening to conversations between pilots and the control tower on a radio scanner.

“Suddenly, I heard a voice say on the scanner, ‘I’m going to try to set it down on the road,’ ” Rohaly said. “He began circling as he went over the 10 (Santa Monica) Freeway at an altitude of less than 100 feet. He crashed a block and a half south of the freeway.”

Christopher Rae was downstairs and his father, Bill, was taking a shower on the second floor when the plane hit their home, the first house it struck.

“The house shook so hard,” he said. “I didn’t think it was an earthquake, but I thought maybe my dad didn’t build the house strong enough and that he was coming through the floor.”

The aircraft spilled its fuel on a house two doors away, setting it ablaze. Los Angeles Fire Department Battalion Chief Larry Schneider said Sunny Cohen, the home’s owner, was inside when “the roof began to cave in, so she got up and left.”

Mary Harris, whose van was destroyed, said she had just put a first-aid kit in the vehicle on Wednesday “because it was going to be my earthquake cabin. And right now it’s got an airplane wing sitting on it.”

Werner Czekalla, a resident on the same block, said he looked out his window and saw that the roof on Cohen’s house across the street “just blew up.” He said the explosion sounded like the air raids in Europe he survived as a child during World War II.

Czekalla said he wants to see the airport closed “to prevent stuff like this from happening.”

Bill Worden, a pilot and spokesman for the Santa Monica Airport Assn., said there are “some people who don’t think the Santa Monica Airport should exist.”

“On the other hand, it’s a community asset,” he said.

The association is a 1,500-member group of pilots and users of the airport.

The plane was carrying copies of an April, 1989, cover story from Sport Aviation magazine that featured a picture of the aircraft flying over Puget Sound in Washington state. The article described the craft as the prototype for the newly developed Wheeler Express, which is designed for home construction and sold in kits.

The gas tanks are hollowed into the wing. When the plane hit the two-story house, the wing probably cracked loose and sprayed fuel over the house that subsequently burned down, said Worden, who was at the scene.

The low-wing monoplane reportedly can be built for between $35,000 and $40,000 and was apparently being demonstrated to prospective buyers Thursday, several pilots said. “Experimental” is the category in which hand-built aircraft are certified as airworthy by the FAA.