Plane Crashes Into Pacoima Houses; 2 Passengers Killed, Pilot Injured

A light plane that developed engine trouble taking off from Whiteman Airport on Thursday night crashed into two houses in Pacoima and burst into flames, killing two passengers and setting the houses afire.

The pilot escaped the wreckage but was hospitalized in critical condition with cuts and burns.

It was at least the sixth crash in the neighborhood since May of last year involving planes en route to and from Whiteman Airport. The prior crashes caused at least one death.

Firefighters expressed amazement that no one on the ground was hurt.

“We were very fortunate here tonight,” said Los Angeles Fire Department Inspector Alan Masumoto. “Many, many lives were spared.”

The Red Cross said it would find shelter for 10 residents of the houses, including several children between 8 and 13.

It was not raining when the single-engine Ryan Avion took off from Whiteman Airport about 6:15 p.m., said the Los Angeles office of the Federal Aviation Administration. Visibility was 30 miles with a 6,000-foot ceiling, the FAA said.

The plane “developed some technical problems,” Masumoto said. It crashed into two houses in the 13100 block of Hoyt Street, about four blocks from the airport, killing two men.

Their identities were not released, pending notification of their families.

Tommie Mendoza, 58, who lives about a block from the crash site, said she and her daughter heard a loud explosion and ran from her house.

“I heard this smash. I ran to the alley,” she said. When she got there she found a man climbing over a fence. He told her he was a flight instructor, she said.

“That’s when I hugged him and put him on the floor,” she said. “His hair was all burned and he was full of blood.

“He kept saying, ‘I tried to help them but the flames were too high,’ ” referring to the two men who perished in the crash, she said.

The instructor gave Mendoza his phone number to call his family and asked Mendoza’s daughter, Veronica Sanchez, to call the airport’s control tower.

The man was “very coherent,” Sanchez said, marveling at his escape from the burning wreckage.

“The flames were strong. I don’t know how he got out,” she said.

The instructor, described as a man in his 40s, was taken to Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in Mission Hills, where he was listed in critical condition, said Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman Jim Wells.

At least 50 firefighters fought the blaze, which did about $120,000 damage to the structures and contents, Wells said.

A firefighter was also taken to Providence Holy Cross, where he was treated for a forehead cut.