7 Killed in 2 Plane Crashes in Van Nuys

Seven people were killed Saturday when two small planes crashed into flames as they tried to land at Van Nuys Airport on Saturday, in accidents that occurred about two hours apart.

All of the dead were in the two aircraft.

Six people died around 5:30 p.m. when the twin-engine Cessna 310 that was approaching the Van Nuys airport for a landing slammed into an open field near the Sepulveda Dam Recreation Area, about two miles south of the airport, and burst into flames, a quarter-mile from busy Victory and Balboa boulevards, said Los Angeles Fire spokesman Jim Wells. A seventh person on the plane was listed in critical condition. A little over two hours earlier, the pilot of a French Trinidad TB20 had been killed when his single-engine aircraft crashed about 200 yards short of the airport runway. It smashed into Roscoe Boulevard near Hayvenhurst Avenue, and part of the fiery wreckage slid into the airport fence, Wells said.

The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation and Safety Board were investigating both crash. Identities of the dead had not been established.