Pilot ‘Pressure’ Cited in Fatal Fullerton Crash

A paraplegic pilot’s “self-induced pressure” to get to his job in Anaheim and an inadequately equipped aircraft caused a crash near the Fullerton Airport last year in which three people died, including a woman in bed in her townhouse, officials said.

Investigators for the National Transportation Safety Board attributed the “probable cause” of the crash to the pilot in command, Les Arehart, 47, for not following proper instrument landing procedures and missing the approach at the airport, which was shrouded in fog at the time.

In a report released last week, the NTSB said that because the pilot was paraplegic, he required special rudder controls to fly, but the four-seat Piper Cherokee he was flying was not properly equipped.

“Contributing to the accident was the pilot-in-command’s self-induced pressure to get to work,” said the final NTSB report on the crash.

Arehart and a friend, Michael Benson, 40, also a pilot and the plane’s owner, were commuting from Big Bear to the Fullerton Airport last November when their plane clipped a utility pole and crashed into the townhouse. Both pilots were killed, along with resident Sharan Ernst, 43.

The NTSB said visibility was about a quarter-mile in the fog. The airplane had descended below the “minimum descent altitude” about one mile short of the runway when it hit the pole, the report stated.

Arehart, a budget analyst with the city of Anaheim, and Benson, who worked at a foundry in Gardena, regularly commuted from Big Bear, where they lived.

The NTSB’s finding surprised Arehart’s supervisor, budget manager Jeff Stone, because Arehart always heeded weather warnings when flying.

“If the conditions were such that he felt they were unsafe, I don’t think he would have landed, based on past practice,” Stone said. “I can think of a couple of instances in which he had to land at another airport because of weather.”

Stone added that Arehart generally flew to Orange County about two days a week, and that he was not under a strict work schedule because of his job.

“There was not any specific pressure from me for him to be here on time,” Stone said. “We were rather in awe of him that he could do that [commute].”

Arehart spent more than two decades in a wheelchair following an auto accident that left him paralyzed. He spent his weekends as a pilot instructor.

During earlier stages of the investigation, Benson was identified as the pilot of the aircraft. He had asked San Diego traffic controllers to be cleared for an instrument landing when the plane was about 10 miles from the Fullerton Airport, an FAA spokesman said previously.

However, the NTSB determined Arehart was the pilot “in command” because Benson was not qualified for flight instrument landings.