Can Runways and Driveways Be Neighbors?

The day after a single-engine plane slammed into an unoccupied home just steps from children at play, aviation experts Wednesday pointed to the inevitability of such accidents in areas where houses abut some of Southern California’s busiest general aviation airports.

While those in the industry cite safety statistics showing crashes like the one Tuesday are rare, they say it is no secret that airports and houses make poor neighbors.

And for residents on the quiet residential street where a pilot died after clipping power lines and losing control of his six-seat Beechcraft Bonanza aircraft, the accident was a startling reminder of the dangers of living just three-quarters of a mile from the airport.

“By the grace of God, it didn’t hit a house with people in it,” said Marilyn Bernhard, who lives next door to the home that was destroyed in the crash. “This was the only house on the block that was unoccupied at the time.”

Pilot William Garvin Lofton, 50, of Sherman Oaks was positively identified by the Orange County coroner’s office Wednesday. The cause of death was massive internal injuries due to the crash.

Throughout the day at the scene of the crash, neighbors and friends dropped off bouquets and notes in his memory, some cutting flowers from their own gardens. The night before, they had watched as workers used a crane to pull pieces of the aircraft from the wreckage. The pieces will be reassembled by crash investigators.

Rod Propst, the airport’s manager, said that Lofton had reported an open door to the control tower and asked to make a left turn in order to head back to the airport. Soon afterward, controllers said, they heard Lofton screaming and calling, “Mayday!”

The plane nose-dived into the house after witnesses saw it strike power lines. National Transportation Safety Board officials, who are investigating the crash, said a preliminary report would likely be issued next week.

For some residents, the accident stirred up long-standing fears about the risks of living near the airport, risks some say are too high for an airfield that caters to a largely recreational clientele. In the wake of the crash, some residents said they would call on the Fullerton City Council to investigate the facility’s safety.

For others, it was simply a terrifying event to witness.

“I get so scared now when I hear planes flying over my house,” said 17-year-old Tiffany Ice, who lives a block away from the crash scene.

The coexistence of airports and residents is part of a larger battle being fought nationwide as once rural airfields from Southern California to New Jersey are increasingly hemmed in by homes and businesses.

“We have airports around the country just surrounded by development, and it is absolutely a concern,” said Drew Steketee, senior vice president for communications for the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Assn.

Steketee said his Maryland-based safety advocacy group has worked to get local governments to enforce zoning regulations already on the books that were meant to guarantee pilots emergency landing options as well as avoid inevitable conflicts over noise.

Still, Steketee said the chances of being killed on the ground by a crashing plane remain extremely small: one in 30 million. Since 1983, bystanders have been killed in 42 general aviation crashes in the United States.

As his group likes to point out, he said, “You have a better chance of being killed by a shark.”

In aviation circles, memories of the Cerritos midair collision between an airliner and a single-engine plane that killed 67 on board and 14 on the ground remain fresh even after nearly 14 years. But even close calls can send chills through a neighborhood.

For general aviation airfields like the one in Fullerton or at Whiteman Airport in the San Fernando Valley, pilots say surrounding land has only gotten more crowded as air traffic in the region has also gotten busier.

“Any airport in a congested area is difficult, because there are not many open spaces if you had to make an emergency landing,” said Vance Carruth, a retired flight instructor who has used the Fullerton airport for 47 years.

“If you have the opportunity, you’re going to head for the nearest runway. [Otherwise] all you can do is to try for an open spot on the freeway.”

Pilots based at the Fullerton airport had fought a nearby housing development in Buena Park--objecting to the loss of open space and plans for a man-made lake that they argued would attract flocks of birds that could prove hazardous to flight safety.

Joel Rosen, Fullerton’s chief planner, said the airport--which dates back to 1915--has been the focus of careful planning for the city since the early 1970s, when California initiated some of the nation’s first regulations about land use near airports.

“We’ve been following very stringently those guidelines,” Rosen said. Still, he said, much of the development south of the airport where the crash took place predates the guidelines. “But some of those neighborhoods would not have been built under current zoning.”

Best Neighbors? Light Industry

From complaints about noise to concerns about safety, those in the airport business say that their preference in neighbors is simple: light industrial businesses.

But the reality is different, especially in places like Southern California where high land costs and an unquenchable desire for housing creates a high demand for even land around airports.

The situation can lead to many close calls.

In the past 14 years, planes departing or landing at the busy Fullerton airport have crashed into townhouses, nearby fields, the parking lot at Movieland Wax Museum in Buena Park, an apartment complex and even the front lawn of a home just steps from an elementary school.

The totals: 28 crashes at or near the airport with 11 pilots or passengers killed.

A Fullerton woman perished in her bed in 1995 after a plane crashed into her townhouse. Airport officials said that is the only time a bystander on the ground has been killed in a crash.

“When you have urban sprawl, essentially a megalopolis from Castaic to San Clemente, there are less options if you have a problem,” Propst said. “It’s a fact of flying here--you have to be prepared.”

Still, he said, the airport has had an excellent safety record with relatively few accidents out of millions of takeoffs and landings.

“Statistically I can tell you we are very safe, but that doesn’t help if you’re a resident at the corner of Courtney and Ash, “ said Propst, referring to Tuesday’s crash site. “But we couldn’t have prevented what happened here.”

Many residents who live near that corner said that while they’ll be paying more attention to low-flying planes, they don’t feel overly worried about their safety.

“It was so unnerving to see something like that in your neighborhood,” said Karen Ripley, a nurse who lives on nearby Olive Street. “I still feel relatively safe.”

Most said they just felt grateful the toll wasn’t higher. The crash happened shortly after noon while children on spring break were playing in their yards and the people in the home next door were inside doing chores. Just a few yards from the crash, a group of children played in an inflatable pool.

For pilots who fly in and out of Fullerton, a little more breathing room would be welcome.

“You look down and there’s nowhere to go but a bunch of homes,” said Alan Marshall, 41, of Ventura, who regularly flies into Fullerton in his single-engine Cessna.

In case of an emergency, Marshall said, the dense surrounding neighborhoods leave few options.

“The basic instinct is to go for the street, but then you have to worry about power lines,” he said. At Santa Monica Airport, “there’s a golf course nearby, but here there’s no place to go.”

Times correspondents Louise Roug and Luladey B. Tadesse contributed to this report.