2 Die as Plane Crashes Into House During Fog

A North Hills couple died early Tuesday when their single-engine plane crashed during heavy fog into a two-story Reseda home whose residents escaped serious injury by using an emergency ladder they had placed on their balcony just two days earlier.

The plane’s full fuel tank ignited a fireball that roared through the roof of the home and set the foggy morning aglow, witnesses said. The force of the blast shattered neighbor’s windows 50 feet away and hurled flaming debris as far as 100 yards.

The couple killed in the crash--identified by friends and family members as Reiner Bey, 66, and his wife, Guadalupe, believed to be in her early 40s--were on their way to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., where he was scheduled to undergo surgery for prostate cancer, the family said.

Official identification of the victims was postponed by coroner’s officials because the bodies were severely burned.

George Petterson, an investigator with the National Transportation and Safety Board, said Bey was not rated to fly in the overcast skies that blanketed most of the city Tuesday morning. Petterson said Bey may have become disoriented in the fog and lost control of the plane moments after taking off from Van Nuys Airport, less than a mile from the crash site.

Bey did not have an instrument rating. The overcast ceiling was reported at 900 feet, less than the 1,000-foot ceiling required for pilots to take off without using flight instruments.

The Mooney M-20 took off from the airport about 5:15 a.m., more than an hour before the control tower was in operation.

The plane smashed through the roof and an upstairs bedroom before coming to rest in the dining room of the house at Andasol Avenue and Hartland Street, setting a fire that virtually gutted the structure.

The owners of the home--Nate Peiman, 68, and his wife, Carol, 66--escaped with minor bumps and bruises but now face the prospect of having to rebuild their home for the second time in four years. They moved back into their house a year after the 1994 Northridge earthquake demolished the 3,200-square-foot structure.

“I’m beginning to wonder if somebody’s trying to tell us something,” she said.

Carol Peiman said she awoke to the familiar sound of a low-flying plane.

“I thought, ‘God, that’s awfully close,’ ” she said.

Suddenly, she felt an impact and “the room turned a bright yellow.”

Nate Peiman woke up to his wife’s cries and the blaring smoke alarm.

“It was like the earthquake all over again,” he said.

Luckily, he had purchased a chain ladder two weeks ago and had placed it on the balcony outside his wife’s second-story bedroom Sunday.

“My wife’s been bugging me about it for the last four years [since the earthquake]--she said we needed another way out” in case of an emergency, Nate Peiman said. “I bought it mainly to keep her happy.”

Officials said Bey, the father of two adult children, was an experienced pilot with more than 9,200 flight hours.

The Beys enjoyed flying and often took long trips in the new plane, said neighbors Jack and Janet Lewis.

Bey tried to get the Lewises to fly with him to Costa Rica, but the Lewises said they were skittish. “When it’s got one motor, that’s all there is,” Janet Lewis said.

Federal records show Bey purchased the plane, a high-performance craft with retractable landing gear, six months ago. Officials valued the Mooney at $300,000.

Standing outside their smoldering home Tuesday morning, the Peimans pledged to rebuild again.

“We loved our home, but we can do it again,” Carol Peiman said. “It’s not the most important thing in the world. I’m just glad we’re alive.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Airplane Crash

The airplane that struck a home shortly after taking off Tuesday morning was made by Mooney Aircraft of Kerrville, Texas. This model, the Ovation, first came off the production line there in 1994 and is now one of the company’s best-sellers. Van Nuys Airport, which began operations in 1928, is the busies general aviation airport in the world. Last year it was the site of 537,470 takeoffs and landings.

Mooney Ovation

Passenger capacity: 4

Cruising speed: 218 mph

Weight: 3,368 lbs.

Fuel capacity: 89 gallons

Sources: Mooney Aircraft, L.A. Dept. of Airports