Couple Die in Crash of Small Plane

A married couple died Sunday morning when their small rented airplane crashed into a 760-foot-high radio tower in La Mirada, officials said.

The single-engine Cessna took off from El Monte Airport and was making its descent into nearby Fullerton Municipal Airport when it struck the tower about 9:45 a.m., said Bruce Nelson, a Federal Aviation Administration operations officer in Los Angeles.

The couple were alone in the plane. A Los Angeles County sheriff’s spokeswoman said they were from the San Gabriel Valley and were in their early 50s. They were thrown from the cockpit and killed instantly. No one else was injured, but some nearby buildings were damaged, and talk radio station KFI-AM (640) was knocked off the air for about an hour.

FAA and National Transportation Safety Board officials began their investigation Sunday morning in a warehouse parking lot.

The area, just north of the Santa Ana Freeway, is dominated by warehouses and wholesale distribution companies, and most of them appeared closed for business Sunday. But some guests at a hotel across the street were startled by the crash.

“It was like a large car accident -- pretty loud,” said Nate Boyd, 26, a construction-company worker from Ohio. “When I walked outside, all you could see was debris flying in the air and black smoke. I thought maybe there was a refinery here, and a gas line blew.”

According to FAA records, the single-engine Cessna C-182 is registered to Lightning Aircraft Corp., an El Monte company that offers flying lessons and rents small planes. A woman who answered the phone there would not comment.

Pilots in the lounge of the tiny Fullerton airport said it is not known for its difficult approach. But they said the tower -- the tallest structure in the vicinity -- is sometimes difficult to see, especially on sunny mornings.