Small Plane Crashes in Burbank; 4 Aboard Die : Aviation: The craft had just taken off and was trying to return to the field. Instead, it went down next to a parking lot.

A light plane that apparently developed mechanical trouble after taking off from Burbank Airport tried to return Thursday, but crashed and exploded in flames beside a parking lot, killing all four people aboard, authorities reported.

Airport Police Officer Joseph Canaan said the plane crashed on Lockheed Corp. property next to Parking Lot A, a long-term parking facility on Hollywood Way at Winona Avenue, about 8:15 p.m.

The dead were not immediately identified. There appeared to be no injuries on the ground, Canaan said.

The plane, a single-engine Piper Cherokee PA-28, had just taken off toward the west when the pilot radioed that he needed to return immediately, said Jerry Acosta, a Federal Aviation Administration regional duty officer.

The plane took off and rose “maybe 50 to 100 yards into the air,” said Ed Der-Avakian of Arcadia, who was driving out of Lot A.

“It just wasn’t going any higher,” he said, and then the aircraft began to circle back, approaching the airport from the east.

“I knew something was going to happen because it just wasn’t going up,” DerAvakian said. “It just came right in front of me.”

Skimming the rooftops of vehicles in the parking lot, the plane smashed down on Lockheed Corp. land just north of the lot and crumpled against a fence, he said.

Moments later the plane exploded in flames, Der-Avakian said.

James Pinon, a dispatcher for Aircraft Service International, told United Press International that he spoke with a pilot who monitored the radio transmissions of the Piper just before the crash.

“He heard the pilot talking on the radio trying to bring it down,” Pinon said. “The guy was taking off and he was trying to come back down because he had engine problems.”

Pinon, whose office is about 250 yards from the crash site, said he heard the plane crash, but did not hear the whine of a distressed engine before the impact.

Acosta said the plane crashed about 1,000 feet east and about 300 feet north of the approach end of the east-west runway.

Firefighters from the Lockheed and Burbank fire departments extinguished the flames, airport police said. Only a small pile of charred metal remained.