Crash in O.C. Kills Pilot, Ignites Fire

BREA —  A private twin-engine airplane plunged into a field east of Carbon Canyon Regional Park just before noon Monday, killing at least one person aboard the aircraft and igniting a brush fire that prompted officials at a nearby elementary school to close down the campus early.

Eyewitnesses said the aircraft--a Piper PA-30 Twin Comanche--made a “whining” sound as it plummeted powerlessly before smashing into a hillside just north of Carbon Canyon Road, scattering bits of plane parts and charred human remains across the road and about 60 yards into a lemon grove.

No one on the ground was injured, officials said.

“Boy, that was a close encounter of the weirdest kind,” said a 44-year-old mountain biker from Anaheim who had passed by the point of impact just seconds before the plane crashed. “If I had been 10 or 15 seconds behind, I would have been killed.”

The witness, who would only identify himself as Billy, said the plane had no power when it crashed. “It made a wind noise,” he said, “and seconds before impact, the engine fired up and revved real high, then bang. Boy, I’m pretty shaken.”

Joe Elisalda, a maintenance worker for the county’s Harbors, Beaches and Parks Department, said he was working about a mile away when he heard the crash.

“I heard a big whining noise and all of a sudden a big boom,” Elisalda said after surveying the crash site.

A spokesman for the Orange County coroner’s office said late Monday that investigators believe there was only one person aboard the plane. The victim’s name would not be released until family members could be notified.

The plane was based at Fullerton Airport, said Harris N. Done, 59, a Fullerton dentist who co-owned the plane.

Done said the pilot was believed to be his partner, a 59-year-old financial investor and retired dentist from Placentia.

Done said his partner, who was the only other person with a key to the aircraft, had mentioned that he would be flying the plane Monday. Done’s wife, who was at the airport for a flight lesson on another plane, saw the ill-fated Piper Twin Comanche take off, he said.

“He was a very competent pilot, an extremely competent pilot, very cool, under control,” Done said. “He was such a careful pilot. He always made sure he was up to regulations and all that.”

Done said the plane was purchased more than two years ago when it was “in really bad condition. We probably spent about $30,000 going through every system and making sure everything was new, making sure it was in perfect condition.”

The plane was last flown a couple of weeks ago, Done said, when he took a trip to San Francisco. It also recently underwent its annual inspection, he said.

Jim Brunner, Fullerton Airport’s assistant manager, said the plane took off about 11 a.m.

The pilot “was in the air for about an hour before the crash, so presumably he was on his way back,” he said. “He was about 10 miles out (from the airport) and our airspace only extends seven miles.”

Thomas H. Wilcox, an investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board, said a preliminary investigation of the crash site showed that the six-passenger aircraft disintegrated after hitting a hillside nose down while going faster than 100 m.p.h.

Amid the high brush at the point of impact, investigators found three gouges where the plane’s nose and twin engines had dug into the ground. Officials said the wreckage then spread down the hillside and across the road to the lemon grove, where a crumpled wing was found.

The fragments apparently carried intense heat, evidenced by the wilted leaves on the fruit trees that were filled with small bits of the wreckage.

The horror of the accident could be seen on either side of Carbon Canyon Road. Near the point of impact, the plane’s propeller was embedded in the ground, pointing upward. Across the road, a piece of metal resembling the door panel was found in the lemon grove.

Dan Poulin, 21, and Loyd Suhling, 51, both of Brea, were working at a nearby stable when they heard the plane crash. But once they arrived at the scene, they realized there were no survivors, Poulin said.

Unable to help possible survivors, Poulin said, he and his friends grabbed shovels to smother the fire caused by the accident.

Flames swept up the hillside in a northeasterly direction, consuming about 50 acres of brush and coming within a quarter-mile of the Olinda Village residential development nearby.

More than 200 firefighters with more than 30 fire engines, two fixed-wing aircraft and five helicopters from local and state agencies responded to the call. The fire was contained in about three hours, fire officials said.

Winds blowing at 20 to 25 m.p.h. were not a factor, but relatively low humidity and low moisture in the field created hazardous fire conditions, fire officials said.

“Some of the homes were within a quarter-mile of the fire, but it never came over that ridge,” said Orange County Fire Department Capt. Dan Young. “The choppers are really the key. Those choppers get here and start hitting it and allow our ground crews to hold the line.”

As a precautionary measure, about 200 children at Olinda Elementary School just east of the crash site were let out of school about 30 minutes to an hour earlier than scheduled, school officials said.

Although there was no immediate danger, “we thought it would be to everybody’s best advantage if we didn’t have anybody at the school,” said Gary Goff, assistant superintendent for Brea Olinda Unified School District.

Part of the debris also struck a power line, causing an electrical outage in the immediate area for a short while, officials said.

Federal investigators combed the area in search of clues that could lead them to the cause of the crash, hoping to retrieve major portions of the plane, including the engines. That type of aircraft does not carry a “black box” recorder, Wilcox said.

The Piper Twin Comanche aircraft was manufactured between 1963 and 1972. In its early history, its makers boasted that the aircraft had better speed and range than its predecessor, the PA-32 Apache. The 2,150 airplanes that were built during that time sold well to private owners and charter and flight school operators, until a series of fatal flight training accidents tarnished its image, according to the Aviation Consumer Used Aircraft Guide.

Times Staff Writers Mary Lou Pickel, Jeffrey A. Perlman and Mark I. Pinsky contributed to this report.