Pilot, Reporter Escape From Burning Aircraft

A pilot and traffic reporter aboard a single-engine plane that caught fire in midair managed to scramble to safety after an emergency landing at El Monte Airport Friday evening.

Pilot Hector Fuentes and veteran traffic reporter Megan Reyes jumped from the plane as it was still rolling and ran for their lives as their aircraft cabin was engulfed in flames shortly before 5 p.m.

“We opened the doors and tried to get out,” said Fuentes, who has been a pilot for six years. “I was just doing my job.”

Reyes and Fuentes work for Shadow Broadcast Services, which provides news and traffic reports for Los Angeles-area radio stations.

The plane’s owner, Kevin LaRousa, said the aircraft caught fire after Reyes turned on a dome light switch that sparked in the cabin of the 1979 four-seat Cessna. Reyes jumped into the back seat because the fire broke out by her seat, LaRousa said.

The plane’s engine had less than 400 flying hours and was one of six in LaRousa’s fleet used for traffic reporting in Southern California, he said .

At time of the incident, Reyes was reporting on an accident on the San Bernardino Freeway near the El Monte airport.

Reyes and a member of the airport ground crew were being treated Friday evening at Greater El Monte Hospital for smoke inhalation.

Josh Louallen, an airport operations employee, said that as the plane approached for landing, “You could see the flames sparking.

Louallen, who grabbed an extinguisher and dashed to the runway, said Reyes and Fuentes “are very lucky.”

Airport officials closed El Monte Airport for several hours after the incident as the aircraft wreckage rested on one of the main runways.