Global Courant 2023-05-01 01:47:35
Authorities say one person died in the weekend crash of a single-engine plane that crashed into a grassy knoll above a Los Angeles neighborhood in the midst of dense fog
LOS ANGELES — One person was killed when a single-engine plane crashed into a grassy knoll above homes in a Los Angeles neighborhood in thick fog, authorities said.
The Cessna C172 crashed around 8:45 p.m. Saturday on the west side of the city, about 8 miles southeast of Van Nuys Airport, the Los Angeles Fire Department and Federal Aviation Administration said.
Joubin Solemani was at home with his family in the posh neighborhood of Beverly Crest when they all heard a loud bang.
“We thought it might be a car accident, but we looked outside and saw nothing. We didn’t know what it was,” Solemani said on Sunday. “Then search-and-rescue showed up and were all over the hill.”
After several hours of searching in the dark and “dense ground-level fog,” crews found the crash site and one person dead in the wreckage, the fire department said in a statement. The pilot was the sole occupant of the plane, the FAA said.
As the sun rose on Sunday, Solemani said he could see the plane a few hundred feet (meters) above his property in the Santa Monica Mountains. “It’s all mangled,” he said.
The plane avoided hitting power lines and a large water tank, and officials said there was little fire.
An air traffic controller initially reported the plane missing after losing radar contact with the plane while it was en route to Van Nuys Airport, the fire department said in a warning shortly after 8 p.m.
The flight took place at Jacqueline Cochran Regional Airport in Thermal, California, near Palm Springs, according to FlightAware, the aircraft tracking website.
The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board will investigate.
