Burbank Crash Pilot Had Traces of Pot

A plane that crashed early this year at Burbank Airport, killing all four occupants, was carrying too much weight and the flight instructor who may have been piloting the craft had traces of alcohol and marijuana in his blood, the National Transportation Safety Board reported today.

No ruling on the cause of the Jan. 18 crash has been determined. The findings on the weight of the plane and the toxicological tests performed on the victims are contained in an investigator’s analysis of the crash that will be used by the safety board to determine a probable cause several months from now.

The single-engine Piper Cherokee crashed shortly after taking off for a training flight to Santa Barbara with four certified pilots on board. The victims were identified as Lawrence W. Anderson Jr., 30, of Thousand Oaks, who was also a flight instructor, Jeffrey Fader, 28, of Canyon Country, Ingvar H. Gronberg, 27, of Burbank, and George E. Kraft, 33, of Marina del Rey.

NTSB Air Safety Investigator Tom Wilcox said the plane had a mass gross weight of 2,325 pounds. But he said the estimated weight of the four occupants, the fuel and baggage, which included several training manuals, was 110 pounds over that limit.

He said the plane would have been able to take off with that weight but the pilot apparently attempted a steep banking turn which doubled the “G-load” or gravity force on the plane, requiring an extreme amount of power to overcome the weight.

“The effect of the weight was compounded by the steep turn,” Wilcox said. “It would have to have enough power to fly around the turn or it would have to descend. They hit a power limitation.”

The engine “just was not producing” enough power to complete the turn, he said.

Wilcox said the plane dropped almost vertically, its left wing striking the ground first.

Fader was in the pilot’s seat and Anderson, the flight instructor, was in the co-pilot’s seat at the time of the crash. But only the steering yoke in front of Anderson was broken during the impact, an indication that he was controlling the plane, Wilcox said.

“At impact he might have had his hands on the controls,” Wilcox said. “Normally during an emergency situation, the flight instructor will take control.”