Single-Seat Airplane Crashes After Takeoff, Killing Pilot

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

No one else was injured, and no cars, power lines or homes in the 17300 block of Parthenia Street were struck when the single-engine, blue-and-white Pitts Special went down shortly after 1 p.m., Los Angeles 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 in Northridge. “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, police said. The propeller, engine cowling and other parts were ripped from the fuselage as it careened along the street.

“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. Brunner said she heard a pop, then a loud rumble that 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 Street and Encino Avenue, Petterson said. The aircraft was a kit plane that had been built by a previous owner in 1988.

The pilot, whose name was not released by late Sunday, took off shortly after 1 p.m., Petterson said. Moments later, he radioed, “May Day! May Day! May Day!” Petterson said Airport workers saw the 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. They found the pilot slumped over, wearing a helmet, his head against his knees.

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

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