Doctor Is Killed in Private-Plane Crash

A Sherman Oaks doctor was killed when his small private plane, spewing black smoke from its tail, clipped a power line and nose-dived into a Fullerton home Tuesday, engulfing the unoccupied house in flames.

Neighbors and children who had spent the warm day paddling in wading pools watched in horror as the plane’s fuel tank exploded and firefighters battled flames for nearly an hour.

The fiery accident--the 28th at or near Fullerton Municipal Airport since 1985--followed reports of an open door on the aircraft and a mayday call from the pilot before the Beechcraft Debonaire dropped onto the home near the intersection of Courtney and Ash avenues.

The four-seat plane, built in 1984, was registered to Sherman Oaks physician William Garvin Lofton. Orange County coroner’s officials had not identified the pilot as of late Tuesday night. But friends who rallied to the Lofton family’s side confirmed that preliminary findings by the coroner’s office indicated he was aboard the plane.

Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board sifted through the charred remains of the craft Tuesday afternoon, but authorities said they were unsure what caused the crash.

A woman who rented the home was away eating lunch in her car when she heard about the crash on her radio. Worried for her two dogs, Renee Scandura raced home.

“I had a feeling it was my house,” Scandura, 30, said, surveying the burned wreckage. She found her black Labrador, Fred, safe in the backyard. Animal control later returned terrier Tess unharmed after the animal had bolted.

In Sherman Oaks, family members and friends gathered at the Lofton home Tuesday night.

“He was a wonderful man,” said Beverly Lofton, who was married to William Lofton for more than 12 years.

Carol Hartmann, a neighbor, said Lofton, an obstetrician who worked for Kaiser Permanente in Panorama City, had flown to Fullerton to visit his daughter’s godfather.

Jocelyn Smith, a longtime friend, said Lofton’s passions were his 11-year-old daughter and flying.

Witnesses saw smoke trailing the low-flying plane shortly after the plane took off from Fullerton Municipal Airport.

The aircraft was seen flying low, about 100 feet over the Buena Park Police Department building, just before the crash. The plane should have been flying at 1,100 feet, airport officials said.

Moments later, the pilot radioed an emergency broadcast, telling airport officials of an “open-door problem but declining to report an emergency,” according to Federal Aviation Administration officials.

But it is unlikely an open door would have caused the crash, airport officials said.

Experiencing problems, the pilot tried to turn the plane back toward the airport, but its tail caught an electric power line about three-quarters of a mile southeast of the runway, city officials said.

While the cause of the crash remains under investigation, Tuesday’s fiery scene in a normally tranquil neighborhood is likely to renew complaints of safety problems surrounding the airport.

In 1995, a small airplane nose-dived into a Fullerton townhouse complex, killing both men aboard the aircraft and a resident sleeping in her apartment.

Propst defended the facility’s safety record, saying that the airport sees 200 to 250 successful operations--including takeoffs and landings--every day.