Fiery Plane Crash Kills Pilot : Tragedy: The 65-year-old general manager of a Costa Mesa company died when his small plane--flying in heavy fog--hit power lines and crashed into the Movieland Wax Museum parking lot.

The pilot of a small plane died in a fiery crash early Monday when his aircraft struck fog-shrouded power lines and slammed into an empty parking lot at the Movieland Wax Museum, authorities said.

Investigators had to use dental records to identify Dale M. Nevitt, 65, who lived in Santa Barbara but commuted weekly to Costa Mesa, where he was general manager of Frost Engineering Services. No one on the ground was injured.

The crash occurred about 6:45 a.m. as museum employees were arriving for work.

“I heard ‘Boom! Boom!,’ and the entire building shook,” said Jeff Johnson, the museum’s lighting manager. “I thought it was an earthquake, because when I ran outside, debris was falling from (an electrical) tower.”

“The tower was swaying,” Johnson said. “And in the end of the parking lot, I saw a big ball of flame. I thought it was a truck on fire, but I couldn’t see well because of the fog. So I got a little closer, about 10 feet, and I said, ‘Wait, this is a plane.’ ”

The crash of Nevitt’s four-seat Cessna 172 Skyhawk II was about three miles from Fullerton Municipal Airport, where the pilot had been cleared to land after fog diverted him from John Wayne Airport.

The 62-year-old Fullerton airport has been the source of controversy for many years. Several residents and officials of Fullerton and neighboring Buena Park have questioned the facility’s safety and called for its closure. Airport statistics show that 29 people have died in 45 crashes near the airport since 1960.

In Monday’s crash, the burning plane fell in a busy commercial district, about 75 yards short of a tract of homes behind the museum, a popular tourist attraction. The aircraft, white with an orange stripe, landed on its back. Both wings were pushed to one side, and its four tires were flattened and charred.

“If he would have landed sooner, it would have been our house,” said Sharon Lumley, 19.

Lumley, who was awakened by the explosions, said she and her father ran outside to see the plane engulfed in flames about 200 feet from her back yard.

She watched as firefighters tried to rescue the pilot from the blaze, which took about 20 minutes to extinguish.

“I am going to panic now every time I hear a plane overhead,” Lumley said.

Nevitt’s wife, Patricia, said she was shocked to learn of her husband’s death. “But if he had to go, this is the way he wanted to go,” she said. “He said so many times.”

“Flying is pretty safe,” she continued. “I was more concerned about him getting hurt on the freeway. . . . When I saw him off at the (Santa Barbara) airport this morning, the last thing he said to me as I was leaving was ‘be careful.’ ”

After acquiring his private pilot’s license and his Cessna in 1982, Nevitt routinely flew to his home in Santa Barbara on Friday evenings, returning to work in Orange County on Monday mornings, his wife said.

William Pollack, an investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board, said the aircraft was originally scheduled to land at John Wayne, but dense fog limited visibility to one-sixteenth of a mile and forced the pilot to abort his landing.

“He made a low pass over the field (at John Wayne) and decided against it,” Pollack said.

Air traffic controllers at the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station then gave clearance for the plane to land in Fullerton. But a short time later, the aircraft disappeared from the radar scope.

“There was no indication (from the pilot) that anything was amiss,” said Elly Brekke, a spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration.

“The next thing we heard is that we had a call from the Buena Park Fire Department about a plane crash in the Movieland Wax Museum’s parking lot,” Pollack said.

Fullerton Municipal Airport Director Roland Elder said the pilot could not have been in contact with the facility because the control tower was not open. “Normally, since he was on instrument approach, he should have been about 1,100 feet high,” Elder said. “Something would have had to happen up there before he dropped and hit the power lines.”

Mike Bush, a carpenter employed by the museum, was just pulling into the parking lot when he saw the blaze. “There were two loud explosions and then the fire, but I couldn’t make out what it was,” he said. “About two minutes later, I saw the tail of the plane.”

Bill Sumner, 66, who lives about 150 yards away, said he heard the explosions and saw “the white flash of lightning” from his bedroom. “I thought someone had put a bomb in the wax museum,” Sumner said. “I climbed up on the roof of my neighbor’s garage. There were flames, but I couldn’t tell it was a plane until some minutes later.”

Pollack said investigators would await the results of toxicological tests on the pilot and structural tests on the plane before attempting to determine the cause of the crash.

Buena Park Mayor Donald Bone, who was on the scene minutes after the crash, said the incident was a tragedy. “We are really thankful that it did not fall on any of the houses,” he said.

Bone said the City Council would await the results of the NTSB’s investigation before “making any judgments about the pros and cons of the (Fullerton) airport.”

Frost Engineering employees on Monday mourned the death of Nevitt, who managed the firm for 23 years. “He was an astute businessman and very thorough and meticulous in his day-to-day operation,” said Gary Constable, a manager of the company’s Oakland office. “That is why the way he died surprises all of us.”

Lynda Natali contributed to this report.