Santa Monica Plane Crash: Feds Launch Investigation

PREVIOUSLY: By Associated Press

SANTA MONICA, Calif. -- Federal investigators are listening to Santa Monica Airport audio tapes and interviewing maintenance workers in an effort to determine the cause of single-engine plane crash into the yard of a vacant home.

The student pilot, whose name hasn't been released, was pulled from the Cessna 172 wreckage after the Monday afternoon crash into a neighborhood about a quarter-mile west of the runway.

The pilot had a broken leg and he underwent surgery Monday night.

National Transportation Safety Board senior investigator Wayne Pollack says the accident site investigation is complete and the wreckage is now at a desert storage facility north of Los Angeles. It will be examined on Wednesday.

Investigators are listening to air traffic communication tapes and interviewing airport tower witnesses and operators of the Justice Aviation flight school.

UPDATE: By The Huffington Post

KTLA reports that the owner of the home is actress Rachel Blanchard who fittingly enough had a role in 'Snakes on a Plane.'

 

Comments

[lipstickpig]

09:42 PM on 09/01/2011

Oh and another thing-Pilot Magizine publishes all airport news --
and they love to write into ever publication and website
pleading in their winey little voices how the airport was there first-
yeah So WHAT? It is not needed nor WANTED now !

None of these Pilots live in the area and they have no concept of pollution
and toxic emissions-and health hazzards-

How many folks own jets? planes? can afford to take flying lessons?
A RICH mans Sport ! Indeed
And they Hate to have anyone tell them they can not play on OUR playground anymore

Pilots Good By !

[lipstickpig]

09:33 PM on 09/01/2011

Please like the FAA has any idea what is going on at this airport-
They only think of themseves and their "friends"

This is a dangerous airport and it is time to shut it down!

[lipstickpig]

09:30 PM on 09/01/2011

Time to Close thisi T0xic Dump Down !

[lipstickpig]

12:01 PM on 09/01/2011

I Can't wait until a huge celebrity jet crashes into the homes near by-killing everyone and the homeowners-
There are serious issues with the SMO airport being too close to homes-and the city of Santa Monica as well as the FAA turning a blind eye-
We have asked for years to have BIg Jets C and D class banned from the airport due to the runways being too short and the jets too loud !
We have asked for the Flight Schools to seize the "Stop n Go's" pretty much the Name as "Touch n Go's" but they changed the name to trick people into thinking it is different-
Too many loopholes and BS-The FAA and the city need to help the residents and stop another accident from happening-
When we bought our homes it was a small airport for real aviation fans now it is a corporate
big business celebrity hub-for those that are out out to go to Van Nuys or LAX or Hawthorn airports that are a better fit and less dense-

CLOSE THE AIRPORT 2015

[SarcasticFringehead]

10:39 PM on 08/30/2011

Having a small Cessna crash land in a residential neighborhood is a serious event.

But not nearly as serious an event as having one of those large Gulfstream 4 jets crashing in the same neighborhood.

This is a real possibility here in Santa Monica.

A fuel laden Gulfstream jet that fails to take off properly or overshoots the small Santa Monica Airport runway, would cause an inferno which would destroy 5 square blocks.

The Santa Monica Airport and its fleet of private jets, is the chosen airport of millionaires and billionaires to use who don't want to go through the same indignities the rest of us go through with Homeland Security when cued up at LAX.

Their sense of entitlement is not worth the risk to the neighborhood that lies below the SM Airport flight path.

There should be a limit on the size of the jets that are allowed to take off and land in Santa Monica Airport.

Maybe no jets should be allowed to use that airport.

[Phemale]

11:52 PM on 08/30/2011

The community has been fighting to get the airport closed for a long time and they have made some headway in recent years.

[jrb35]

01:33 AM on 08/31/2011

There already is a limit on the size of jets that can take off from SM airport. Those that are too big fly out of LAX instead. SMA has one of the toughest noise restrictions around for small airports and if a pilot violates it, he won't be flying there anymore. Nearly everyone who lives around the airport bought their house knowing full well that there was an airport next door. It's been there since the area was farmland. I have no sympathy for someone who buys a house next to an airport and then complains about all the planes overhead. They're living in Santa Monica, not South Central. It's not exactly a bad place to live.

Flying a privet jet out of SMA has nothing to do with not wanting to go through the indignities of homeland security checks. It's about saving time and having flexibility that one can not get flying commercial at LAX. If I had the money, I'd fly netjets exclusively. That's what's great about being rich.

Also, no jet flying out of SMA would destroy anything near 5 square blocks if it crashed on take off or landing at relatively low speed. That's just nonsense. Also, jet use there is at its lowest level in over a decade. The vast majority of flights to and from SMA are prop planes like the Cessna that crashed.

[SarcasticFringehead]

12:24 PM on 08/31/2011

You've made some good points.

However, I did read in the local SM paper, the SM Daily Press, that if one of those huge Gulfstream 4 crashed, it would in fact take out five city blocks.

Those jets in particular, should be banned from such a small airport.

[lipstickpig]

12:05 PM on 09/01/2011

You have made some good points-
But all are wrong-
The airport is dangerous and has out lived its use-
This is a neighborhood first!
NO MORE BS
CLOSE iT DOWN 2015

[lipstickpig]

07:56 PM on 08/30/2011

Well it is fitting -Snakes in the city of Santa Monica-
These are the true snakes that are putting peoples lives in jeapardy!
The city is in bed with the rich jet setters and flight schools and could care
less regarding the residents that live near by-
Next time a big ol G5 Jet crashes into a home it WILL be a differnet story-
Snakes in SMO

[richnerd]

07:55 PM on 08/30/2011

I picked my wife up at Los Angeles International Airport and was driving back to the Valley on the 405 about 12:30 am when ahead of us we spotted a flatbed truck with an oddly-shaped mass of bent white metal parts....as if some giant machine had been in an industrial accident. Pulling alongside, we discovered it was a wrecked plane...a Cessna. The cab was completely crushed and immediately my wife and I wondered if the pilot had survived. The answer is "yes" and the photo of the plane in the article is exactly the plane we saw on the truck last night. I guess now we know where it was headed.

[chesscub]

05:18 PM on 08/30/2011

I'm sick of these G-D planes on this G-D house.

[lipstickpig]

08:25 PM on 08/30/2011

Got that Right ! Everyone in the area is sick and tired of this BS !