Ranch Developer Among 6 Killed in Plane Crashes

The head of a firm involved in the controversial development of Paramount Ranch and three other people were killed Monday morning when their private jet crashed while attempting to land in heavy fog at San Luis Obispo Municipal Airport, authorities said.

On Monday evening, two people died when their plane smashed into the foothills north of the San Gabriel Valley city of Claremont. Names of the victims were not released pending notification of relatives.

The pilot in the San Luis Obispo crash was identified as Ezra Raiten, 38, of Northridge.

Raiten was head of Paramount Ranch Estates, owner of the 320-acre parcel in Agoura where the Renaissance Pleasure Faire formerly was held. The development company plans to build luxury houses on the scenic, oak-studded parcel in the Santa Monica Mountains. The proposal has been vigorously opposed by area homeowners and environmentalists.

Other victims included Raiten’s 17-year-old son, Amir; Warren P. Callaghan, 18, of Northridge, and Ofer Shamir, 28, of San Luis Obispo. The teen-agers were students at Cuesta College in San Luis Obispo, officials said.

The four had taken off in the Cessna Citation from Van Nuys Airport about 40 minutes before the crash.

The plane went down in a field about three miles northwest of the San Luis Obispo Municipal Airport, Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Fred O’Donnell said. Minutes earlier, the pilot had reported that the craft had passed the airport’s outer marker and was headed for a landing.

Authorities initially believed five people were on the plane and spent several hours looking for a fifth victim but determined that an acquaintance of Ezra Raiten had not made the flight.

Authorities said Ezra Raiten had landed the same plane at the San Luis Obispo airport safely last Thursday, despite a brake problem. After that emergency Raiten told a reporter for the San Luis Obispo Telegram-Tribune:

“There was no time to get scared. If you get scared, you get screwed up.”

A relative at Ezra Raiten’s Northridge home confirmed Monday night that he was killed in the accident, but declined further comment.

The development of the Paramount Ranch property has been opposed by environmental groups and the Las Virgenes Homeowners Federation, who unsuccessfully sued in July to void Los Angeles County’s decision to permit 150 houses to be built on the property. The opponents have said they will appeal the defeat.

The Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy had sought to buy the property in 1988, but Raiten’s firm bought the parcel for $13.5 million.

Executives of Paramount Ranch Estates could not be located for comment Monday on what impact Raiten’s death might have on the project.

In Claremont, firefighters at Los Angeles County Fire Station 62 heard the plane hit the ground at 5:38 p.m., said fire dispatch supervisor Charlotte Kramer.

Firefighters found the aircraft and two victims on a “real steep hillside” a quarter-mile behind the fire station just outside the Claremont city limits, Kramer said.

“They crashed on a road. (The pilot) looked like he was trying to land on a road, but it was too steep,” Federal Aviation Administration duty officer Art Morriston said, describing the aircraft as “an 18-foot home-built.”

Claremont police Lt. Robert Smith said the plane went down just outside the populated area near the southern part of the city.

“It looks as though it was a light plane that tried to land on Camp Baldy Road,” Claremont police Lt. Robert Smith said. “It appears as though the plane flipped over at least once, possibly twice.”

Both accidents were being investigated by the National Transportation Safety Board.