Small Airplane Crashes in Street, Killing Pilot

Minutes after taking off from Van Nuys Airport on Sunday afternoon, a single-seat aerobatic biplane crashed in a heavily traveled thoroughfare, killing the pilot.

No one else was injured and no cars, power lines or homes in 17300 block of Parthenia Street were struck when the single-engine, blue-and-white Pitts Special went down shortly after 1 p.m., city Fire Department officials said.

“I was in my backyard when I heard an explosion in the air and saw the plane descending from the sky,” said Kim Janovitch, who lives near the scene of the crash. “It seemed like the pilot was trying to get the plane to land safely.”

The quick, agile plane--a type often used for stunt flying--took off and then banked hard, turning east back toward the airport moments before it nose-dived, witnesses and officials said.

The aircraft crashed in the center of the four-lane street, between Balboa Boulevard and White Oak Avenue, then slid 175 yards across the pavement, police said. The propeller, engine cowling and other parts were ripped from the fuselage as it careened across the road.

“It seems almost miraculous nothing was hit,” said Fire Department spokesman Brian Humphrey.

Several people who live in the area reported that the plane was making unusually loud noises, and one woman said debris appeared to be dangling from the underside of the fuselage before it crashed.

“I thought it was going to hit the house,” said Audrey Brunner, 29, who lives in the neighborhood with her mother. Brunner said she heard a pop, then a loud rumble she thought was the engine.

National Transportation Safety Board investigator George Petterson said the plane began to fall apart in the air, with pieces of the craft “literally raining down on the neighborhood.”

Parts of the plane’s exterior and its starter motor were found almost a mile away, near the intersection of Osborne and Encino avenues, Petterson said. The aircraft had been built from a kit by a previous owner in 1988.

The pilot, a man whose name was not released, took off from Van Nuys soon after 1 p.m., Petterson said. Moments later, he radioed, “Mayday! Mayday! Mayday!” Petterson said airport workers saw the lightweight craft spiraling down.

Neighbors and motorists saw or heard the crash and rushed to the scene. Working together, several people pulled off the transparent canopy that covered the cockpit.

The pilot was slumped over, his head against his knees. He was wearing a helmet.

“A guy in front of me checked the pilot’s pulse,” said Dave Kelly, who was one of the first on the scene. “He found none.”

Emergency crews spent an hour cutting the plane apart to remove the pilot, who appeared to have died on impact, Petterson said.

Kelly, a Northridge resident, was heading east on Parthenia to his job as a car salesman when he looked up and saw the aircraft about 100 feet above the street.

“My first thought was that it was a remote-control plane,” Kelly said. “I was going 40 miles an hour. It was probably going 70.”

Scheeres is a Times correspondent and Slater is a staff writer.