2 Single-Engine Planes Crash in Separate Incidents

Two single-engine planes were destroyed but no one was killed Tuesday in separate ill-fated flights.

The first crash occurred shortly after noon, when a student pilot who had been practicing takeoffs from the Compton airport crashed in a creek near the runway. Both the pilot and the passenger, a flight instructor, received minor injuries. The Cessna 152 was destroyed.

Airport manager Ed Cox said teachers often use the airport for takeoff and landing practice. “If it had been just a student he’d have probably died,” Cox said.

The second plane, also a Cessna 152, apparently lost power two miles offshore en route to the Long Beach airport about 5 p.m. A Coast Guard boat responded to the plane’s distress call about seven minutes after the crash and found the pilot and passenger treading water near where the plane sank.

Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Don Karol said rescuers were able to locate the crash victims quickly because the pilot, 34-year-old Stephen Foley of Long Beach, was holding a flashlight in his mouth. Neither Foley nor his passenger, 32-year-old William Metz, also of Long Beach, were injured.

Officials from the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating both crashes.