Pacoima Plane Crash Injures 3

The pilot of a small plane was injured Wednesday afternoon when his Cessna Centurion hit a moving car and then smashed into a used car lot a few blocks from the runway where he was trying to land at Whiteman Airport in Pacoima.

A passenger in the plane and a man driving a Honda Civic received minor injuries in the crash, which occurred about 3:30 p.m. near San Fernando Road and Pinney Street.

Witnesses said the plane came down beside railroad tracks on a dirt shoulder along San Fernando Road, then skidded across the road, hitting the car before coming to a stop in the car lot.

The pilot, Ruben Piranian, 56, of Granada Hills, owns Burbank Air Service, a repair shop at Whiteman, said friend and attorney Ernest J. Franceschi Jr. Piranian had just repaired the plane for a customer and had taken it for a test flight when the engine failed, Franceschi said.

Firefighters arrived moments after the call came in to Fire Station 98, five blocks north of the crash site, which was near the airport, said Bob Collis of the Los Angeles Fire Department.

“They just about made it,” Collis said, “but they didn’t.”

A small fire caused by leaking fuel was quickly extinguished, Collis said.

Piranian was taken to Pacifica Hospital of the Valley in Sun Valley.

The passenger, whom friends identified as Nicolas Estrella, 26, and the 28-year-old Honda driver, whose identity was unknown, were taken to Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in Mission Hills.

Officials at both hospitals declined to comment.

But Franceschi said he visited Piranian in the hospital, where he appeared to be recuperating quickly.

“He seems to be in good shape. He is in shock. And we are trying to determine what happened,” Franceschi said. He added, “There is an old aviation saying that any landing you can walk away from is a good landing.”

Jim Dillinger, a retired Los Angeles Police Department officer, was sitting in his office at Black & White Towing next to the car lot when the plane went down.

“I went over to the plane and dragged the pilot out,” Dillinger said. “He [the pilot] didn’t speak. He was bleeding quite a bit from the head and nose.”

Norm Rogers, a pilot at Whiteman who has known Piranian for years, said he visited him in the hospital shortly after the crash and he appeared to be in good condition.

“He’s a little confused right now, but he’s going to be all right,” Rogers said. “That’s the most important thing.”

Investigators from the Federal Aviation Administration were at the crash scene Wednesday evening.

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Times staff writers Karima Haynes, Caitlin Liu, Nita Lelyveld and Pat Biederman contributed to this report.