Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) reported that a single-engine plane, Cessna C172, went missing on Saturday night last week. The air traffic controller reported that the aircraft was moving towards Camarillo Airport from Bermuda dunes near Palm Desert but diverted mid-way towards Van Nuys Airport, where it went missing.
Air Traffic Officer Filed The Missing Report
The plane had no passengers other than the pilot. It was hard to locate the plane. The search began roughly around 8 pm while the night sky was full of fog and smoke between Santa Monica Airport and Nan Nuys Airport, hoping to find a clue. At 11:20 pm, the plane was found crashed while the pilot was declared dead near a hillside in the neighborhood of Beverly Crest, 3000 block of Beverly Glen Circle, hours after the plane was reported missing.
LAFD, along with the Airport management, joined forces to investigate more about the incident. The proceedings revealed that the plane crashed around 8:10 pm for unknown reasons. The pilot had made no distress calls or signaled anything out of the ordinary before the crash happened. The neighbors said that it felt like a pile of trash falling, and their walls trembled, but they did not anticipate it to be a plane crash.
LAFD reports suggest the plane crashed "upon a steep hillside that includes a large water tank above a home at 3045 Beverly Glen Circle." No deaths or injuries were recorded besides the pilot, who was later identified as a resident of Woodland Hills. Alon Inditzley, a 38 years old man who was alone during the crash, was said to have lost touch with the air traffic officer moments before the flight disappeared.
Investigators had a Hard Time due to Heavy Fog
Elliot Simpsons, the senior aviation accident investigator of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), reported, "(The) pilot made that turn towards the airport and then began descending. Radar contact was lost about a minute or so later." The crash could have been more disastrous. But the plane somehow missed the water tank and two houses east of 405 freeway. Both Los Angeles Fire Department's helicopters and ground crew were investigating to find more clues, but the fog made it harder to identify anything, with 50 feet of view being hidden in heavy fog.
One of the residents of the Beverly Crest neighborhood, Joubin Solemani, said he heard a loud crash when he was home with his family. "We thought it might be a car crash. But we looked outside and didn't see anything. We didn't know what the heck it was," Solemani said Sunday. "Then search-and-rescue showed up and were all over the hillside," he added.
No Causalities Reported
The LAFD spokesman, Brian Humphrey, provided a statement on the case, saying, "LAFD responders have discovered one person deceased at the scene. No other persons were believed aboard." The investigation is still ongoing as we are about to reach around a week after this accident. The LAFD and National Transportation Safety Board would look into the details of the pilot, including his qualifications and history of aviation, and the condition of the plane to come to a valid conclusion.
It is still a question of why the pilot deviated from the flights toward Van Nuys Airport instead of heading to Camarillo. There was no distress call made. Is it to be blamed on the foggy weather that night or an ill fate? Only further investigations into the case would prove. Nothing much about the pilot has been revealed to the public yet. However, LAFD, along with the Air Traffic board, Van Nuys Airport management, and other officials, are looking into the case to find a possible loophole.
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