Former Seal Beach Man Among 6 Fatalities in Fiery Plane Crash

Former Seal Beach resident Elliott Fischer, 56, was one of six people who died Tuesday in the fiery crash of a commuter airplane attempting the land at Pasco, Wash., just north of the Oregon border.

Fischer, who had recently moved to Washington to take an engineering position with Westinghouse Hanford Co., was returning to his new home in Richland, Wash., after spending the Christmas weekend in Seal Beach with his former wife, Janet, and their two daughters.

“He was sorry that he had to go back,” Janet Fischer said Thursday. “He had such a good time, and he wanted to spend more time with his daughters.”

Fischer’s plane, a twin-engine turboprop British Aerospace Jetstream 31 operated by United Express, was shuttling from Seattle to Pasco when it landed about 400 feet short of the Tri-City Airport runway Tuesday night. It bounced once and then exploded in a “ball of fire,” witnesses reported.

All six aboard died, including the two crew members and three other passengers from Colorado, Texas and Washington.

Although the Fischers had been divorced for eight years, Janet Fischer said their former marriage of 16 years had left them “good friends.” Fischer spent Christmas Day with his two daughters every year, she said.

According to airline officials, the year-old 19-passenger plane had made six landings Tuesday before the crash. The cause of the accident is under investigation by the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board.

Fischer was born in Maryland and grew up in San Diego, his ex-wife said. He obtained two engineering degrees from the University of Idaho, which one of his daughters now attends.