Plane Crash Probe Focuses on Piloting
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SAN DIEGO — Federal aviation officials said Monday they were investigating the possibility that a San Diego traffic reporter--not the pilot--might have been at the controls of a light plane that crashed into a freeway embankment in Solana Beach last month, killing both men and narrowly missing rush-hour traffic.
George Petterson, an investigator for the National Traffic Safety Board in Los Angeles, said pilot Douglas Hayden on several occasions had allowed reporter Howard Glenn Kreisler to take control of the single-engine plane before the crash--even though Hayden was not a certified instructor.
The plane crashed Nov. 1 just off Interstate 5 during morning rush hour.
Petterson said investigators are awaiting the results of several tests--including an autopsy--being conducted by the agency at Walter Reed Hospital in Oklahoma City.
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