Small Plane Crashes in Burbank Neighborhood; 2 Aboard Are Injured

Two people were injured Saturday when their single-engine plane ran out of fuel and crashed in a residential neighborhood near Burbank Airport, authorities said.

No one on the ground was injured when the Aero Commander 112 carrying the pilot and one passenger crashed at 4:45 p.m. on Kenwood Street, about five blocks south of the airport. The plane clipped power lines and the roof of one house and then crashed into two trees and a car.

The beige plane with red trim was destroyed. The injuries to the pilot, Richard Purvis, 63, and his 42-year-old unidenitifed female passenger were described as moderate and they were in good condition at Holy Cross Medical Center.

The owner of the damaged house was not at home when the accident occurred. Across the street, Tom and Kathy Sharp were loading a trailer out front when Tom Sharp looked up and could tell by the downward angle of the Aero Commander that it was going to crash.

“We watch planes around here all the time,” he said. “I knew that one was in trouble. I yelled: ‘Plane coming down! Plane coming down!’ and we got out of the way.”

His wife said: “I heard him screaming and looked up just as the plane hit the power lines. It looked like it was coming this way so we started running.”

The Sharps said the plane glanced off the roof of the house across the street and was heading toward their front yard when its wings were sheared off by two trees and it crashed onto the sidewalk and Kathy Sharp’s 3-month-old car parked on the street.

Tom Sharp and other neighbors who heard the crash ran to the wreckage but told the occupants, both of whom were conscious, that they could not move them.

Burbank Fire Department Battalion Chief Stan Nelson said that when firefighters arrived a few minutes later the woman was climbing out on her own. The pilot was trapped and rescuers took nearly an hour to remove him.

The pilot had radioed the Burbank Airport air traffic control tower shortly before the crash and reported that they needed to make an emergency landing, airport spokeswoman Elly Mixsell said.

The plane had taken off from Van Nuys Airport about half an hour earlier, and was not initially bound for Burbank Airport, she said.

Nelson said the pilot told firefighters that the plane had run out of fuel while flying over Universal Studios and Burbank Airport was the nearest landing spot. Nelson said that firefighters found no fuel at the crash site and no evidence of fire or an explosion.

The accident will be investigated by the National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration, officials said.