ROSEMEAD : Pilot in Crash Not OKd for Flying in Dense Fog

A Henderson, Nev., pilot whose plane slammed into a wall alongside the San Bernardino Freeway was not approved for instrument flying rules in effect at the time of the crash, a federal investigator said.

Don Llorente, a National Transportation Safety Board investigator, said dense fog lowered visibility to 2 1/2 miles at the time of Tuesday’s crash--below the margin needed for flying by visual flight rules.

Llorente said controllers at the El Monte Airport would not have allowed the plane to take off under visual flight rules. But he said the plane took off at 6:05 a.m., 25 minutes before the airport’s flight tower opened. He said the plane was piloted by Madge Maples, 62, who was killed in the crash along with her 65-year-old husband, Neal Maples.

The two were killed when their Piper Cherokee clipped a house and slammed into a wall along Interstate 10 in Rosemead, scattering debris along the busy freeway.