Plane Crash Victims Were Pilots in Training Program

Four men killed when their twin-engine plane crashed into the ocean near Los Angeles International Airport were Europeans training to upgrade their pilot ratings in this country, officials said Monday.

Still undetermined is why the Cessna 310d nose-dived into the Pacific on Friday night, a short time after its pilot radioed that he was having landing gear problems and received permission to loop around for a second landing attempt at LAX, National Transportation Safety Board investigators said.

Thomas H. Wilcox, who is heading the NTSB investigation, said the plane--rented from Prism Aviation in Mesa, Ariz.--took off from Deer Valley Airport in Scottsdale earlier Friday after the pilot filed a flight plan indicating a circular training route that would have included stops at Los Angeles, San Francisco and Las Vegas before a return trip to Scottsdale.

The identities of the four men on board have not been released, but the NTSB said three were Spaniards and one was from Belgium. All four were pilots participating in a training program in Arizona.

Wilcox said the man who rented the plane had 315 hours of experience as a pilot and was qualified to fly in limited visibility. The man had only 10 hours’ experience in a Cessna 310, Wilcox said.

The NTSB said that as the plane prepared to land at LAX shortly after 9 p.m. Friday, the pilot radioed that he was having an unspecified problem with his landing gear. Aborting his initial landing attempt, the pilot requested--and received--permission to circle around for a second attempt.

The airport tower instructed the pilot to climb to 2,000 feet on a south-southwest heading and switch to the departure radio frequency.

“But he never contacted departure control,” Wilcox said.

Radar showed that the plane climbed to 1,400 feet, then descended through 1,300 feet at a speed of about 130 mph.

In the seconds it took the radar antenna to complete another sweep, the plane disappeared from radar screens, which provide coverage down to an altitude of about 400 feet above the water.

“That aircraft descended more than 900 feet in less than five seconds,” Wilcox said.

Witnesses on the beach said they saw lights flash overhead, then the splash of something hitting the water.

An hour and a half later, rescue boats spotted some floating debris and recovered two bodies. After plotting the radar data, divers on Sunday found additional debris on the ocean floor--in water 45 to 60 feet deep--and recovered the two other bodies, one of which was still pinned in the wreckage.

Wilcox said a preliminary study of the shattered wreckage--which has been recovered and placed in a hangar at Compton Airport--shows that both engines were providing power when the plane plunged nose-first into the water.

Any possible connection between a landing gear problem and the crash is not immediately clear, Wilcox said.