Pilot Who Died May Have Erred on Flight Path, Investigator Says

A federal aviation investigator said Friday that a Kern County pilot may have been on the wrong flight path and radio frequency when another plane’s propeller shredded his aircraft’s tail and caused a fiery crash near the Santa Paula Airport.

George Petterson, a National Transportation Safety Board investigator, said other pilots told him that William Lewis Clark was not heard on a common radio channel just before his Cessna 182 crashed into two homes east of the runway Thursday and set them ablaze.

The 10-year-old frequency that pilots must use to broadcast their intentions for using the runway was changed three weeks ago, and the out-of-towner may not have known about it, Petterson said.

However, Federal Aviation Administration officials said that pilots are required to check an airport’s frequency before taking off.

Clark’s plane also appeared to be flying outside the required landing pattern when the other plane, which was following the pattern correctly, struck it, Petterson said.

Clark, 49, of Buttonwillow, was killed in the crash.

No one was seriously injured, and a family escaped from their home just before the weight of Clark’s flaming plane collapsed their roof.

The other plane, a Cessna 150 trainer, landed safely after Santa Paula flight instructor Andrew Sinclair probably took over the controls from a trainee who was flying it before the crash, Petterson said. The student-pilot was identified as Betty Polak of Camarillo, according to the Associated Press.

Petterson declined to say who was at fault, saying that the investigation will continue.

He said that seven of the 28 accidents at Santa Paula Airport since 1983 have been fatal, claiming the lives of 10 fliers. Three of those--including Thursday’s--were midair collisions, he said.

Times staff writer Daryl Kelley contributed to this story.