Shock, questions after Fullerton plane crash kills 2, injures 19

Two people aboard a small plane were killed when their aircraft crashed into a commercial building near Fullerton Municipal Airport, bursting into flames and injuring 19 people working in the facility, officials said.

Security camera footage captured a fireball exploding Thursday afternoon when the plane hit the roof of the Michael Nicholas Designs furniture warehouse store, sending thick clouds of dark smoke and bright orange flames into the sky.

Audio prior to the crash indicated that the flight went suddenly wrong.

The names of those killed had not been officially released as of Friday evening, but in an Instagram post, the Huntington Beach High School soccer team identified them as junior soccer player Kelly Reid and her father, Pascal. Pascal Reid of Huntington Beach was the registered owner of the plane, according to Federal Aviation Administration records.

“Yesterday our soccer family suffered an unimaginable loss. Kelly Reid and her father Pascal were tragically lost in a plane crash,” the post states. “Kelly was an amazing girl ... genuine and kind with such passion for life.”

Fullerton Police Department spokesperson Kristy Wells said law enforcement could not confirm the identification Friday evening, as officials were awaiting for a report from the Orange County coroner.

A day after the crash, the single-engine airplane remained at the site as investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board returned to the area to try to determine why it went down just a few minutes after taking off from the airport.

Within minutes of the plane going down, people rushed into the nearby Tac City Airsoft store, yelling that there had been a crash.

Sunah Kim, a nurse at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center who was listening to music inside the store while her son was attending an airsoft camp, found herself in a familiar yet unexpected situation.

Kim, who previously worked on trauma teams, heard the crash and saw smoke billowing out of a nearby building. She and a Tac City employee drove around the corner to the furniture store.

She said she entered a “chaotic scene,” with badly burned workers and pieces of the plane, tools and furniture from the store strewn about.

“In that moment, when you’re in there, you’re trying to do anything you can to help,” Kim said. “The Tac City staff showed bravery in recognizing what was going on and responding.”

She and an employee from Tac City tended to wounds, while triaging injured workers, prioritizing those most badly burned, she said.

“We moved those who needed to see a burn unit immediately from others, so when emergency personnel arrived they knew who to help first,” Kim said. “I had my small emergency kit in my car and did as much as I could.”

Kim, a clinical nurse with 16 years of experience, said she continued to work as firefighters, paramedics and others arrived.

“I think they allowed us to continue to help because they were grateful for the help,” Kim added.

Two people were killed and 19 injured when the plane struck the warehouse; a triage area was set up near the building, officials said.

(OnScene.TV)

The crash was reported in the 2300 block of Raymer Avenue at 2:09 p.m. Thursday, prompting the evacuation of more than 100 people from the building and the establishment of a nearby triage area, according to the Fullerton Police Department.

The crash occurred near the Fullerton airport, and officials identified the aircraft as an experimental, single-engine Van’s RV-10.

The plane climbed straight ahead to about 900 feet after takeoff, NTSB investigator Eliot Simpson said during a news conference, but then the pilot immediately called back to the control tower. He asked if he could return.

The control tower cleared the pilot to land and the pilot made a 180-degree left turn and then flew left downwind, Simpson said. The four-seat plane crashed into the building about 1,000 feet short of the runway, Simpson said.

Eventually the plane will be moved to a remote facility for further investigation.

Eleven people were taken to hospitals and eight were treated and released at the scene, according to Fullerton police.

Firefighters respond to a plane crash near Fullerton Municipal Airport on Thursday afternoon.

(KTLA-TV)

Data from flight-tracking service FlightAware showed a plane leaving the airport at 2:07 p.m. before its flight ended at 2:09, which is the time that police said they received a notification about a plane crash.

The plane had just taken off when the pilot announced that an immediate landing was required, according to audio from the air traffic control tower.

In the audio, the pilot initially says he is going to land on Runway 6, prompting the controller to tell another aircraft to turn away from that area. The controller tells the pilot that either Runway 6 or 24 are clear for landing.

The pilot then says he is going to land on Runway 24. Less than a minute later, panicked gasping and an “Oh, my God” can be heard before the pilot’s audio goes quiet.

Federal investigators will be looking into what made the pilot decide to land back at the airport and determine if it was an engine failure or a fuel issue, aviation expert Bert Botta said.

They will also review the plane’s mechanical condition and the pilot’s flight history and medical condition.

The pilot was flying a single-engine Van’s RV-10 experimental aircraft, meaning it was built by an individual and not by a large manufacturer, said Botta, a retired airline captain for TWA who is now a legal aviation expert.

“It doesn’t mean that he’s out flying around trying to find out whether it’s going to fall out of the sky or not by experimenting with things,” he said. “There’s a number of them that have been sold and been built by Vans aircraft, and most of them are very reliable and still flying to this day.”

Robert Ditchey, an aviation expert with training as an accident investigator, said the probe will likely involve local agencies cooperating with federal investigators. He is not involved in the investigation of the crash.

The NTSB will likely receive assistance from the FAA and investigators will likely reach out to the manufacturers of the engine and airframe, along with any other equipment makers.

While the investigation is in its early days, Ditchey said the public can still consider air travel generally safe.

“General aviation is still quite safe compared to other forms of transportation and other ways in which accidents occur,” Ditchey said.

The latest incident isn’t the first plane crash to happen near or out of the Fullerton airport in recent decades and illustrates some of the inherent risks that come with a municipal airport situated within a suburban landscape.

In April 2000, a small private plane clipped a power line and dived into a home in Fullerton, killing the pilot and engulfing the unoccupied home in flames.

“There are too many houses around here for a purely recreational airport. It’s happened before, and we’re going to have to start doing something. Every time you hear the planes, you expect them to go into the walls. When they pass, you breathe easier,” Richard Fowler, who lived nearby, told The Times after the crash.

Less than two years later, a pilot slammed into the ground shortly after takeoff from the airport and died in the crash but managed to miss nearby homes and yards.

In December 2004, a couple died after their rented single-engine Cessna crashed into a radio tower while it was making its descent into Fullerton Municipal Airport. They were thrown from the cockpit and killed instantly. No one else was injured in the crash, but nearby buildings were damaged.

In September 2019, a plane crashed into a Yorba Linda neighborhood after taking off from Fullerton airport, resulting in the deaths of himself and four others on the ground.

Fullerton Mayor Pro Tem Shana Charles pointed out that Fullerton’s is the only municipal airport left in Orange County, meaning that if small plane crashes happen anywhere in the county, it will be in Fullerton.

But since another plane crash happened about two months before Thursday’s crash, in which the pilot and passengers were injured but not severely harmed, Charles emphasized the need for more oversight to make sure similar incidents don’t happen in the future.

Whether that’s making sure the entryway for the landing strip is safer or more education for pilots, only time will tell, she said.

“We need to make sure that we’re doing everything on our side to make sure things are safe for not only the people in the air but on the ground,” she said.

A day after the crash, the steady sound of single-engine planes landing at 30-minute intervals buzzed throughout the neighborhood near the airport.

Outside a swarm of media and authorities near the incident, the scene was relatively peaceful for Steve Piazza, the manager of Gilbert Storage. The business sits about 100 yards from the warehouse. He drove in to check on employees and customers but everyone was OK.

“This is a relatively quiet area and you wouldn’t know there was an airfield nearby because there just isn’t a lot of noise or commotion,” Piazza said, who was not in the area Thursday. “I came in and everything was fine.”

Piazza manages a slew of local small businesses and said he was shocked by the news of the crash.

“I’ve been here for two years and this is the first of any type of events that happened here,” he said. “We’re next to industrial businesses, so not much going on.”

Fullerton City Councilmember Nick Dunlap told The Times he isn’t aware of any complaints or concerns brought forward by residents regarding the safety of the airport.

“It’s devastating any time there’s a fatality or accident,” he said. “My thoughts are with the families who lost two family members.”

Dunlap and U.S. Rep. Lou Correa (D-Santa Ana) recently announced that $500,000 in federal tax dollars would be used to upgrade the airport’s technology and accessibility for its air traffic control tower.

Dunlap said the airport dates back to 1913 and was originally used as a landing strip before it became a permanent facility in the 1920s. It’s now the longest-operating general aviation airport in Orange County and is used as a multipurpose center and event space.

“I look forward to an exhaustive investigation that will tell us if there’s anything that will need to improve,” Dunlap said.

Multiple agencies worked together to respond to the incident. They included the Fullerton police and fire departments; Buena Park police; La Habra police; Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway police; Cal State Fullerton police; and fire personnel from Brea, Anaheim and Huntington Beach as well as the Orange County Fire Authority.

Fullerton Mayor Fred Jung thanked first responders in a Thursday evening statement on behalf of the City Council.

“As we come together in the wake of this tragedy, the city of Fullerton is committed to providing support for all those affected and working with the agencies involved to uncover the details of this incident,” Jung stated. “We are grateful for the strength of our community and the compassion we show one another in times of crisis. Together, we will move forward with resolve, care and unity.”

A day after the crash, an employee from the furniture store waited outside for a call from her supervisor. She wanted to get access to some medicine and personal items she had left in her desk.

“They just told us to leave everything and we did, and now we can’t get it for who knows how long,” said the employee, who identified herself only as Katerina, citing fear of retaliation. “Some people left cars here because we were told that the investigators needed everything untouched.”

Katerina was inside the warehouse in a different section when the plane crashed into the building. She said she “heard the terrible sound” and then saw the translucent curtains that separated her department from another catch fire.

“We just started screaming and ran out,” she said.