Pilot Burned in Pacoima Crash Dies of Injuries

With his family at his side and classical music playing in the background, a NASA engineer and concert violinist died Sunday morning of injuries sustained when the small plane he was piloting on March 15 crashed in Pacoima.

Jordan Kaplan, 32, who was a mechanical engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, died at 8:40 a.m. at the Grossman Burn Center at Sherman Oaks Hospital, eight days after the fiery crash that also took the life of his friend Shoba Srinivasan, 28, of Arcadia.

Kaplan, who performed with local orchestras and ensembles, suffered third-degree burns over 93 percent of his body in the crash. Doctors at the hospital said the burns were the worst external injuries they had ever seen on someone brought to the center for treatment.

Kaplan, who lived in Pasadena, died of “multiple system organ failure,” said Larry Weinberg, a spokesman for the burn center.

Kaplan and Srinivasan, who was also a violinist, were scheduled to perform Sunday with the Santa Monica Symphony Orchestra. That performance was dedicated to them.

Music was just one of Kaplan’s many passions, friends said Sunday as they gathered at his home after his death to play music, look through photographs and reminisce, according to friend Alan Summerville.

“He lived more in his short life than most of us will live in our entire lives,” said Summerville, who met Kaplan on their high school swim team. “There was just so much he was packing in. Everything he got involved in he just threw himself into. I don’t know how he did it all.”

Another friend, Jennifer Argenti, played with Kaplan in a string quartet.

“My life is changed now,” Argenti said. “He became such a part of my daily life from being my friend to playing music together.

“My quartet’s not a quartet anymore.”

Flying was one of the passions he shared with his friends, said Nicholas Patrick. “He was a very competent and careful pilot, which makes the tragedy of last weekend all the more devastating.”

Kaplan and Srinivasan were on their way to Northern California to visit friends and family when the accident occurred.

The pair took off from Whiteman Airpark in Kaplan’s vintage, single-engine plane at about 3 p.m. Half a mile from the airport, the plane crashed into an abandoned home. Srinivasan died at the scene.

Services for Kaplan have been tentatively scheduled for 2 p.m. Wednesday at Mt. Sinai Memorial Park and Mortuary, 5950 Forest Lawn Drive in Los Angeles. Kaplan’s family has asked that in lieu of flowers, contributions be made to the Children’s Burn Foundation at Sherman Oaks Hospital or the Santa Monica Symphony Assn.