Plane Crash - March 16th, 2004

Jet Air Pollution

Plane Crash - March 16th, 2004

A tragic accident like this can happen anywhere, but what would this scene look like if the plane had been a commuter jet?

Do we really need this growing threat?

Thoughts from Martin Rubin

Two letters sent to the L.A. Times, but as yet not published.

Click the Links below:

Partial list of plane crashes connected with Santa Monica Airport:

as compiled by Zina Josephs, President of Friends of Sunset Park

1) May 17, 1987 -- Cessna 182 aircraft crashed on Rose Ave. in Mar Vista,

injuring the pilot, two passengers, and a motorist.

2) July 7, 1989 -- Cessna 150 aircraft crashed on Rose Ave. in Venice.

3) July 9, 1989 -- Cessna 210 aircraft crashed at Hillcrest Country Club in Rancho Park.

4) Sept. 2, 1989 -- P-51 Mustang crashed into a home on Wade St. in Mar Vista. Pilot and passenger injured.

5) October 26, 1989 -- Wheeler Express aircraft crashed into 3 homes on

Greenfield Ave. in West Los Angeles. Pilot and passenger injured.

6) Feb. 26, 1990 -- Home-built Long Eze aircraft crashed into the ocean near Santa Monica Pier. Pilot died.

7) Feb. 24, 1991 -- Piper Malibu aircraft crashed into a home in West Los

Angeles.

8) Jan. 18, 1992 -- Mooney Ranger M-20 aircraft clipped a utility pole, burst into flames, and ended up in the front yard of a home on Dewey St. at Walgrove in Santa Monica. -- 2 fatalities (pilot and passenger)

9) June 2, 1993 -- Piper Comanche aircraft crashed into the ocean off of Malibu -- pilot injured

10) Nov. 26, 1993 -- Marchetti aircraft crashed into an apartment building on 4th St. near Bay -- 3 fatalities (pilot and 2 passengers)

11) Mar. 11, 1994 -- Piper Cherokee aircraft crashed into home on Barrington Ave. -- passenger died, pilot injured

12) April 20, 1994 -- plane crashed in backyard of a house on Ashland Ave. -- pilot died -- The S.M. Airport Commission established a Safety Committee, which made 37 recommendations.

13) May 7, 1995 -- Homemade experimental aircraft crashed into home in Mar Vista -- pilot injured

There is a gap in my newspaper clippings from 1995 to 2001, but I doubt that there was a gap in airplane crashes during that time.

If anyone is aware of other crashes, please send the information to: jetairpollution@earthlink.net

14) Nov. 13, 2001 -- Cessna slid off end of runway and burned on west embankment next to 23rd St. -- 2 fatalities (pilot and passenger)

15) Feb. 4, 2002 -- Beechcraft took off from S.M. Airport and crashed near High Desert Airport in Joshua Tree.

16) June 6, 2003 -- Beechcraft took off from S.M. Airport and crashed into

apartment building near Fairfax High School -- 5 fatalities (pilot, passenger, 3 residents), 10 people injured (5 critically)

17) March 16, 2004 -- Mooney aircraft crashed into Mar Vista home while trying to land at fog-shrouded S.M. Airport -- 2 fatalities (pilot and passenger)

Recent Mar Vista Plane Crash - Los Angeles, CA (March 16th, 2004)

Story by Marty Rubin

A small plane crashed into the rear of a house in the 3300 block of Mountain View Avenue in Mar Vista, setting the home on fire. The Malibu couple, Paul Tobias, a psychologist age 71, the pilot, and his wife, Paula, a sculptor, age 60, were both killed. The occupant in the house, James Whiting, 57, was talking on his cell phone in his living room when he “felt an enormous shudder and crash”. He said that the kitchen area, just about 10 feet away, was engulfed in a huge ball of orange flames. He was not injured and his family was not home at the time. The accident occurred at approximately 5:04 p.m. on Tuesday, March 16. There was a thick fog covering the area after the crash, investigation will determine whether fog was enough at the time to have caused the pilot of the small plane to lose visibility. Eyewitnesses had observed the plane circling around the neighborhood several times before it clipped power lines and garages and then plummeted into the home’s kitchen.

The accident site was approximately one-half mile southeast of Santa Monica Airport. The neighborhood is part of what is called “Hilltop Mar Vista”, an area of Los Angeles. The area is densely packed with houses. Eyewitnesses observed that the nearby Little League field was populated and that in a clubhouse type building adjacent to the ball field, a children’s birthday party celebration was going on shortly after the crash. The neighborhood was described as feeling quite surrealistic after the crash as dense fog and darkness increased. Firefighters along with many news crews scrambled furiously about.

The couple was on approach to Santa Monica Airport. It was believed that they had never made contact with air traffic controllers at that airport. The plane was identified as a small, single-engine Mooney M20. The couple had been flying from Mammoth/Yosemite Airport to Santa Monica.

Residents report that when the weather is overcast or foggy, planes often fly south of the airports runway and miss the airport. They have to circle around and try again. It is most frightening, they say, when the large commuter jets fly in low and miss the airport.

Neighbors near the crash site are affected long after the fire is put out and the news crews go away. Now, when a small plane sputters, as they sometimes do, a new feeling of fear comes over them. A neighbor that I spoke to nine days after the crash told me that their child is having recurring nightmares about the crash. Another neighbor said she wants the airport closed. Everyone agrees that Santa Monica airport is much more threatening, noisy and polluting since the arrival of jets.

So far there has not been a crash involving a jet, but as the new jets get older, and as their maintenance may be compromised, it seems that it is only a matter of time until something goes terribly wrong and a jet goes down. Which neighborhood will be subjected to the horrors of such an accident?

Firefighters work on a roof of a house in the Mar Vista area of Los Angeles near the Santa Monica Airport after a small plane crashed into it Tuesday, March 16, 2004. (AP Photo/Stefano Paltera)

Firefighters work on a roof of a house on Mountain View Avenue in the Mar Vista area of Los Angeles near the Santa Monica Airport after a small airplane crashed Tuesday, March 16, 2004. (AP Photo/Stefano Paltera)

A broken wing of a single-engine plane hangs over a fence and a burned out car in the back yard of a house in Los Angeles after the plane crashed into the house and burst into flames on Tuesday, March 16, 2004, on its approach to the Santa Monica Airport. A man and woman aboard the plane were killed, but a man inside the house escaped unharmed, officials said. (AP Photo/Pool, Lawrence K. Ho)

An investigator shines a light onto the wreckage of a small plane that crashed into a house in Los Angeles, Tuesday, March 16, 2004.(AP Photo/Lawrence K. Ho, Pool)

Los Angeles County firefighters survey damage after a small plane crashed into the house in Los Angeles, Tuesday, March 16, 2004. (AP Photo/Lawrence K. Ho, Pool)

One destroyed wing is visible on the wall at right as an investigator shines a light into the smoldering wreckage of a small plane that crashed into a home in Los Angeles, while on approach to Santa Monica Airport in heavy overcast, Tuesday, March 16, 2004. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)

Investigators prepare to photograph the smoldering wreckage of a small plane that crashed into a home in west Los Angeles, while on approach to Santa Monica Airport in heavy fog, Tuesday, March 16, 2004. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)

Los Angeles city firefighters examine the smoldering wreckage of a small plane that crashed into a home in Los Angeles, while on approach to Santa Monica Airport in heavy overcast, Tuesday, March 16, 2004. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)