Light-Plane Crash Kills Two Aboard, Damages Two Homes

Two people were killed Monday afternoon when their small plane crashed in a suburban Anaheim Hills neighborhood during a downpour, damaging two houses.

The Piper Cherokee, which flew out of Oceanside, crashed about 2:30 p.m. as it prepared to line up for a landing at John Wayne Airport, said Larri Dillard, operations officer for the Federal Aviation Administration in Lawndale.

A man and a woman were killed in the crash, but their identities were not immediately available, said Anaheim city spokesman John Nicoletti. Investigators from the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board were on the scene by late afternoon.

It was the third such crash in less than two months in Orange County, and the second in north Anaheim. On Nov. 8, Dennis Beitel, 58, of Temecula died when his single-engine Cessna crashed into a hill along the Riverside Freeway, also during rough weather.

A day earlier, two people were injured when a single-engine Beech crashed at John Wayne Airport. Both of those accidents remain under investigation.

Monday’s crash occurred as a major storm moved across Orange County, bringing wind, heavy rain and fog that authorities said probably contributed to the crash.

“Obviously, the conditions were not ideal for flight,” Nicoletti said.

The plane clipped power lines and a tree as it plunged into the driveway and frontyard of 810 South Sapphire Lane. The home’s garage caught fire, but firefighters extinguished the flames before they damaged the home, Nicoletti said. Debris, which caused minor damage to the garage next door, was scattered across front lawns and in the street.

Karen McEwen and her two young children were not home when the plane crashed into their frontyard, neighbors said. They returned briefly to collect belongings and left to stay with family members.

Few neighborhood residents were home at the time, but those who were said the crash startled them out of what had been a quiet afternoon subdued by rain and clouds.

One woman who declined to be identified said she was repotting plants in front of her house when the plane swooped low, clipped a tree and then flipped, landing on its roof across the street. She said her son ran over and saw two people, apparently dead, inside the wreckage before it exploded in flames.

Phyllis Fasulo, 71, lives next door to where the plane hit the ground. She said she was about to take a break from writing Christmas cards when she noticed the sound of a plane unusually close, and a moment later a loud “smack.” Seeing nothing out a side window, she went to the garage and opened the door to her driveway and saw a neighbor across the street.

The neighbor suddenly took off running, yelling that the plane was going to explode, and then came a bright flash of fire, Fasulo said.

“The flames just came up. It was terrible,” Fasulo said.

The plane didn’t miss Fasulo’s house by much. Her house reeking of smoke, she was planning to stay elsewhere for the night.