2 Light Planes Collide Over Valley; 4 Killed

Two light planes collided above a Sylmar golf course Monday, killing all four people aboard and sending golfers running for safety as the wreckage landed on both sides of the Golden State Freeway.

One of the two-seat, propeller planes was descending to land at Van Nuys Airport and the other was patrolling an oil pipeline that runs from Bakersfield to refineries in Wilmington and El Segundo, federal aviation officials said.

“I was on the right side of the fairway and about to hit when we heard the explosion,” said Darryl Gordon, 38, of Santa Clarita, one of four friends playing the sixth hole at the Cascades Golf Club when one of the planes crashed.

“We just watched as everything unfolded in front of us,” he said. “Then we ran over a little embankment and jumped behind a little hill.”

Officials said the planes were headed in the same direction, although witnesses said they collided head-on. Authorities are investigating the cause of the crash, which occurred shortly before 10 a.m. and involved an experimental Questair Venture and a Bellanca Citabria Scout.

Officials would not release the names of the victims. But a spokesman for Petersen Aviation, a charter company at Van Nuys Airport, identified the pilot of the Questair as Charlie Oliver, one of the company’s captains of Gulfstream and other corporate aircraft.

Joseph Molina, spokesman for Petersen, said company officials described Oliver as “an outstanding pilot” whose duties included flying dignitaries, entertainers and business leaders around the world. Molina said he did not know the identity of the woman flying with Oliver.

In addition, a pilot with the service surveying the pipeline, said a National Transportation Safety Board official confirmed that the other downed plane was owned by Thomas Quist, 42, of Bakersfield.

Friends and relatives said Quist, owner of Patroline, left Bakersfield Municipal Airport on Monday morning with pilot Kevin Kaff, 22, also of Bakersfield, who was training to take over the route, and their plane did not return.

Witnesses said the Questair Venture nose-dived into a gravel clearing near the entrance to a Metropolitan Water District filtration plant west of the golf course and across the Golden State Freeway.

Investigators said the bodies of Oliver and a woman woman were in the wreckage.

Jeff Horiguchi, 39, of Kagel Canyon was traveling south on the freeway when he saw the red experimental plane crash.

“It was teetering, smoking, and it was going down,” he said. “I parked and jumped out, hopped over the fence. I could see this guy was dead.”

The crash occurred near the Newhall Pass, a main north-south route between high mountains that aviation experts say is one of the nation’s busiest corridors for private planes.

As the Citabria plummeted, it hit utility lines, exploded and landed in three pieces near the sixth hole of the golf course. No one on the ground was injured.

Rescue workers pulled two badly burned bodies from the wreckage, and said they could not determine even their sex. Coroner’s officials said it would take at least a day to determine the identities.

Federal Aviation Administration officials said the flying conditions did not require instruments, and the pilots had been operating under visual flight rules.

The good weather may have been a detriment, because it often is harder to see planes against clear skies than in the contrast provided by slightly overcast conditions, said Drew Steketee, spokesman for the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Assn.

“About 90% of midair collisions occur on a beautiful, clear day with excellent visibility,” Steketee said.

The red plane had radioed its approach to Van Nuys Airport moments before the crash, according to FAA officials, but they could not confirm early accounts that it had reported trouble.

“The experimental aircraft called the tower and told them that they were inbound,” said Kirsti Dunn, spokeswoman for the FAA. “When the tower responded, there was no answer.”

Officials said the Citabria also was communicating with the Van Nuys tower.

George Petterson, the lead National Transportation Safety Board investigator, said the Citabria was on its usual Monday-Thursday patrol of a crude oil pipeline through the Valley.

He said the planes’ courses ran parallel, and he had no explanation for observers’ accounts of a head-on collision.

“That is what I need to find out,” Petterson said. He has requested radar data and voice tapes from the Van Nuys control tower.

The Citabria’s passenger, Kaff, had begun flying with Quist several weeks ago to make extra money while he put himself through Bakersfield Community College, Kaff’s brother said.

Ryan Kaff, 24, said his brother, a part-time business student, was inventive and planned to be an entrepreneur. His love of flying was simply a hobby, along with fixing cars and building airplanes, Kaff said.

“He was a very responsible pilot. We got caught in an incoming storm and he kept it cool. He just said to buckle up tight and he’d takes us down--and he did,” Kaff said.

Another Bakersfield pilot said Quist and Kaff left in the early morning. As night fell, he closed Quist’s hangar.

Harry Kraley, who worked for Quist for 10 years, said his boss was passionate about flying and often flew his own experimental aircraft, a Harmon Rocket, on weekends.

“When you do the type of flying we do, there’s a passion about it,” Kraley said. “It’s just a part of you.”

In May 1998, a pilot for Quist’s company was killed while doing pipeline surveillance work when his plane crashed into the mountains above Gorman.

The Citabria, introduced in 1965, often is used for search and rescue missions because its high wings and large windows give both the pilot and passenger a clear view all around.

The other plane, according to the registration number on the fuselage, was a Questair Venture built in 1999. It was registered to a Santa Paula commercial airline pilot, who recently sold it to investors, according to a friend.

The Venture is “more on the order of a sports car” in the field of home-built airplanes, said Dick Knapinski, spokesman for the Experimental Aircraft Assn.

He said the plane can reach speeds of 300 mph--one of the fastest kit planes--and estimated the cost of the craft at more than $100,000. “That plane was built to go fast,” Knapinski said.

The crash disrupted electric utility service to a wide area of Southern California. Power company officials said the Citabria hit support cables, which do not carry electricity. Edison officials could not determine whether the plane also hit a 220,000-volt line or pushed the cable into the live line.

Edison said nearly all its 4 million customers from Visalia to Orange County suffered a “dip in voltage.”

Also, about 33,000 Department of Water and Power customers in Van Nuys lost power for about three minutes shortly after the crash, a DWP spokeswoman said.

Chris Messing, 37, of Newbury Park, said the Citabria “was already burning a little when it hit the power lines. There was an explosion. Then it rained debris and slammed into the ground.”

Times staff writers Jonathon E. Briggs, David Colker, Irene Garcia, Karen Robinson-Jacobs, Hilary E. MacGregor, Kristina Sauerwein, Margaret Talev and Martha L. Willman contributed to this story, as did special correspondent Richard Chon in Bakersfield.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Midair Collision

Four people were killed shortly before 10 a.m. Monday when two two-seat planes collided in midair. One was descending for a landing at Van Nuys Airport and the other was patrolling an oil pipeline.

1. After the collision, the Bellanca Citabria struck power lines and came to rest near the sixth hole of the Cascade Gold Club.

2. The Questair Venture nose-dived into a gravel cleaning.

*

*--*

1. Bellanca Citabria 2. Questair Venture Scout (kit specifications vary) Two Seating Two 22’9” Length 16’3” 36’2” Wingspan 27’6” 8’8” Height 7’8 1/2” 1,315 lbs. Weight 1,200 lbs. 2,150 lbs. Max. Takeoff Weight 2,000 lbs. 180 hp Horsepower 300 hp 122 mph Cruising Speed 276 mph 384 miles Range 1,185 miles 18,000 ft. Service Ceiling 29,000 ft.

*--*

Visual Flight Rules (VFR)

George Petterson, National Transportation Safety Board investigator in charge, said the weather and flying conditions were good. The pilots did not need to use instruments and the planes were operating under visual flight rules.

* Pilots must be able to see other aircraft to maintain separation.

* Aircraft may not take off if the cloud cover is lower than 1,000 feet.

* The visibility in the air must be three miles or better.

* Aircraft must stay out of clouds and fly 500 feet below, 1,000 feet above or 2,000 feet horizontally from clouds.

Source: Jane’s All the Worlds Aircraft; FAA; NTSB

--- UNPUBLISHED NOTE ---

The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association advises that the airplane patrolling the pipeline is more properly identified as a Bellanca Scout, omitting Citabria. The National Transportation Safety Board officially refers to the aircraft as a Bellanca, Model 8GCBC.

--- END NOTE ---