Experts dissect crashed plane

A small plane that crashed into two homes in Compton on Saturday probably experienced a loss of engine power, federal authorities said Monday, noting that it may take months for investigators to determine the exact cause.

“We also have a witness who heard the engine rev up just before the loss of power,” said Wayne Pollack, a senior air investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board.

Pollack spoke at a brief news conference while workers used a 105-foot crane to lift the remains of a twin-engine Cessna 310 from the homes it had sliced into shortly before 4 p.m. Saturday.

The crash seriously injured the pilot, a passenger and three people on the ground, all of whom remained hospitalized. All of the injured are expected to survive, relatives and investigators said.

At about 2:40 p.m. -- less than half an hour after Pollack finished his update -- crews extracted the aircraft from a house in the 500 block of West Cypress Street as firefighters doused the craft to prevent a fire.

The wreckage was lowered nose-first to the street, where the plane then rested on its belly, the severed wings nearby on the ground.

Investigators began an initial look at the plane on the street. The plane was then taken to a Safety Board investigation site in Lancaster for further inspections.

The spectacle drew firefighters and area residents. Tommy Mitchell, 31, a manager at a local security company, remarked on how the plane had quickly become a well-known neighborhood fixture.

“Since Saturday I’ve been looking at the thing,” Mitchell said of the Cessna, which crashed a short distance from his home. “It’s kind of weird it’s not there anymore. It’s surreal.”

The pilot has been cooperating with investigators and is expected to provide a written statement detailing the plane’s condition and events leading to the crash, Pollack said.

Pollack declined to give the pilot’s name, age or years of experience. Investigators have requested the pilot’s flight records from the Federal Aviation Administration, he said, describing the flight as “a personal pleasure flight by a commercially rated pilot.”

Federal records show the 36-year-old plane was registered to Eureka International Inc. of Carson City, Nev.

The house that the plane sliced into, as well as another home that was struck on the roof, have been declared uninhabitable, according to Marcel Melanson, deputy chief for the Compton Fire Department.

Relatives of those injured in the crash said they were frustrated by the situation.

Artis Hosley, 72, lives down the street from the crash, which injured his daughter Regina, 44.

She remained hospitalized with fractures of the eye socket and face and possibly a broken arm, he said, and “she’s kind of miserable.”

--

molly.hennessy-fiske@latimes.com