Man Fights for Survival After Fiery Plane Crash

A Pasadena man was fighting for his life Sunday after a fiery airplane crash in Pacoima that left him with third-degree burns over 92% of his body and caused the death of the woman he was flying with.

Jordan Kaplan, 32, was being treated at the Grossman Burn Center at Sherman Oaks Hospital. “He’s got the worst exterior burns we’ve ever seen here,” said Larry Weinberg, spokesman for the burn center.

There was still hope that Kaplan would survive.

“We’ve had other patients with 90% of their bodies burned survive and walk out of this hospital,” Weinberg continued, saying that Kaplan’s age and good health are in his favor.

“But the odds,” he added, “are not good.”

If Kaplan survives, doctors are hoping he will be strong enough later in the week for them to begin surgically grafting new skin onto his body.

Weinberg said Kaplan--who authorities believe was piloting the private airplane that crashed into a vacant Pacoima home Saturday afternoon--worked for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena.

On Sunday night, coroner’s officials said they believed they had identified the dead woman, but they declined to release her name until her identity could be confirmed by dental records.

Kaplan was heavily sedated and breathing through a respirator in the burn unit on Sunday but was able to communicate with friends and family, who had arrived from Massachusetts, by nodding his head or squeezing hands, Weinberg said. Hospital officials say Kaplan is aware of where he is and what has happened to him.

Family and friends gathered at the hospital declined comment.

Music was being played off and on in Kaplan’s room in an effort to comfort him, according to Weinberg. “Burn care is not high-tech care,” he said. “Our first priority is treating the acute trauma.”

The crash occurred only about half a mile from Whiteman Airpark in Pacoima, where Kaplan and the woman took off in a vintage single-engine plane shortly before 3 p.m. Saturday. Officials said there were indications they were trying to return to the airport when the plane went down.

Los Angeles Fire Department officials said some witnesses reported that the plane was on fire before crashing. No one was injured on the ground.

Witnesses at the scene said the entire crash site was engulfed in flames. It took firefighters about 10 minutes to put the blaze out, according to Fire Department spokesman Brian Humphrey.

Officials from the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the cause of the crash.