Tainted Fuel Found in Plane’s Gas Tank : Crash: Officials analyze contaminant found after accident that killed 16 sky divers. Oil distributor that serviced aircraft is being investigated.

Contaminated fuel found in the wreckage of an airplane crash at Perris Valley Airport that killed 16 people and severely injured six others Wednesday has led investigators to a local oil distributor that provided pumping services at the airport the day of the crash.

The oily, unidentified contaminant was found throughout the fuel system that fed the right wing engine, which failed during takeoff, said Don Llorente, a spokesman for the National Transportation Safety Board.

Sources familiar with the airport operation identified the company as Empire Oil of Bloomington. Efforts to reach company officials were not successful.

Tests were being conducted Saturday to determine the nature of the oily goo, Llorente said. Five gallons of the substance were discovered in the front fuel tank of the DeHavilland Twin Otter and traces were also found in a fuel truck at the airport, although several other underground tanks were clean, Llorente said.

The disclosures came amid plans to lift a suspension on sky-diving, perhaps as early as today, at the popular “drop zone,” considered a favorite of parachute enthusiasts. Another Twin Otter at the airport remains grounded by authorities, “but it looks like we’ll be jumping tomorrow” from other aircraft, said Bob Jones, 54, a veteran sky diver and instructor.

The image of the Perris Valley sky-diving operation had been tarnished after the crash and disclosures that none of the sky divers aboard the ill-fated plane wore safety restraints.

“This place maintains as high standards as possible in this business,” said Rafaeel Chodos, an attorney for the airport owners.

The NTSB’s Llorente cautioned that it was premature to draw conclusions from the investigation of the airport’s fuel supply.

Ben Conatser, owner of the private airport, said the fuel supplier was hired Wednesday morning to pump fuel from an underground tank to a fuel truck after the tank’s built-in pump broke. He declined to confirm the identity of the company. The Otter was refueled shortly before taking off Wednesday morning.

Conatser theorized that the pumping equipment apparently had not been purged of the residue from a previous job. As for the possibility that his fuel truck or the airplane had somehow been tampered with, Conatser said, “I would hate to think that way.” The fuel truck, he added, is locked overnight.

Llorente said although the tainted fuel was found in the forward tank that feeds the right engine, none was found in the aft tank that feeds the left engine. Both tanks were filled shortly before takeoff, indicating that the contaminant moved through hoses capable of holding 14 gallons of liquid as a gelatinous mass.

In defending airport operations, Chodos sought to dismiss reports that pilot Rowland Guilford, who was killed in the crash, was unqualified to fly the DeHavilland Twin Otter. Guilford, although relatively new to the Otter, was a certified multiple-engine instructor who had more than 1,000 hours flying sky divers, he said.

Guilford, married for 21 years and the father of four girls and a boy, made his living as an air-conditioning and roofing salesman and earned extra money on piloting jobs. He flew often at the California City Skydive Center near Mojave, said operator Judy Celaya. She described Guilford as “a dear, dear friend of a lot of us.”

He was “a meticulous, safe pilot,” his brother, LeRoy Guilford, said. “I’m sure that everything that is going to come out will show that.”

Witnesses judged the airplane to be 20 to 50 feet in the air before it abruptly veered to the ground. The six survivors, including members of a competitive U.S. sky-diving team, sat in the rear of the plane and were cushioned by the bodies in front.

The NTSB’s Susan Coughlin said an examination of the wreckage showed that the pilot and a passenger in the co-pilot’s seat were the only people aboard the plane wearing waist safety belts, and neither was wearing a shoulder harness. One shoulder harness was inoperable. Even if they had worn the harnesses, neither could have survived the impact, she said.

Few sky divers at Perris faulted anyone for apparently lax attitudes on the use of safety belts. Several argued that the regulation does more harm than good because a neophyte fumbling for a seat belt could accidentally deploy a reserve parachute inside a plane--an incident that could create another life-threatening emergency.

A trust fund is being established for Guilford’s family at Riverside National Bank. Another fund had been established to pay for sky divers’ medical and funeral expenses.