Fullerton Airport’s Record Defended : Aviation: Facility officials say the system is sound and that an open control tower wouldn’t have prevented recent fatal crash. Federal probe may last about six weeks.

Fullerton Airport officials Thursday defended the airport’s flight system, which has come under heavier scrutiny since a Nov. 20 plane crash that killed three people.

“The system has performed flawlessly for years,” Airport Director Roland Elder told a meeting of the airport’s Noise and Safety Committee. “It’s a good, safe system. But obviously, somewhere, there was a failure in that system.”

Michael Benson, 40, and Les Arehart, 47, both of Big Bear, died when their plane dived into a Fullerton townhouse complex at 6:35 a.m. Resident Sharan Ernst, 43, was killed while asleep in her bedroom.

The pilot of the six-seater Piper Cherokee was trying to land in fog and crashed during an approach to the airport.

The National Transportation Safety Board’s investigation of the crash is expected to continue for about six weeks.

*

Elder also said that the airport’s control tower, closed at the time of the crash, could not have prevented it.

“Many airports don’t even have a control tower,” Elder said. “The misconception is that the tower can direct planes around the flight pattern. The duty of the tower is to make sure there is only one plane on the runway at a time and help them land in an orderly sequence.”

Elder said that in the event of bad weather, qualified pilots can make an instrument landing at Fullerton if visibility is sufficient. Although both men aboard the plane were pilots, only one was qualified to make an instrument landing. It is not known who was at the controls.

The NTSB released a preliminary report this week that noted weather conditions at the time of the crash but did not list a possible cause for the accident.

Robert McNutt, a spokesman for the airport’s 200-member pilot’s association, said he hoped that the crash would not damage the airport’s reputation nor its relationship with the community, which, he said, the association has spent 10 years trying to build.

“This is the first time anyone on the ground has been hurt or killed, and that speaks to how rare and remote the chances of something like this happening are,” McNutt said. “You have to try and keep it in perspective. But we’re all very concerned about it. It’s almost like we have to start over.”