Good Samaritans helped lift up a single-engine plane and pull the pilot from the wreckage after it crashed upside down in the parking lot of an auto-parts store in Pacoima, according to authorities.
The airplane was determined to have taken off from Whiteman Airport, a small airport that has faced calls to shut down for several years following a string of accidents.
Monday’s crash was reported shortly after 11 a.m. near the intersection of San Fernando Road and Van Nuys Boulevard, according to L.A. police. When the Los Angeles Fire Department arrived at the scene, the pilot, a 72-year-old man, had already been extricated from the plane, according to department spokesperson Jamie Stewart. He was transported to a hospital in critical condition.
Video captured in the immediate aftermath of the crash shows a group of about a dozen people in the parking lot of an O’Reilly Auto Parts working together to lift up the aircraft and then drag the pilot out from underneath.
Bystanders help lift up a small plane after it crashed in the parking lot of an auto-parts store in Pacoima.
(RMG News)
“Me and my brother and like 10 other people helped pick up the plane and rescued the guy out,” witness Luz De La Cruz told KTLA. “It was very terrifying.”
The airplane clipped high voltage power lines during the crash, creating an electrical hazard and prompting the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power to deenergize electrical lines in the immediate area, said Stewart. Police and fire crews at the scene shut down Van Nuys from Ralston Avenue to San Fernando Road because of the downed lines.
“All these wires were coming down,” De La Cruz told KTLA. “You could see the sparks in them, so the people from O’Reilly’s ran outside and were screaming at us like, get off the cars, it’s going to spark on your cars.”
Crews were working to restore power to around 360 customers in Pacoima as of 6 p.m., according to the DWP’s power outage map.
The FAA said it was investigating the crash and identified the fixed-wing plane as a Cessna 172 S Skyhawk SP.
Federal records show the plane is registered to Vista Aviation Inc. at Whiteman Airport. A spokesperson for the business, which provides aviation services, could not immediately be reached for comment.
According to the flight tracking website Flight Radar 24, the plane took off from the small Pacoima airport shortly before 11 a.m.
Data show the plane was in the air for less than 10 minutes when it turned around and headed back to the airport before crashing.
The Whiteman Airport Coalition, an advocacy group for the airport, said in a statement that the plane was being rented out to the pilot.
“Events like this are taken very seriously,” they wrote. “Whiteman Airport operates under strict federal safety standards, with rigorous requirements for pilot training, aircraft maintenance, and flight operations.”
Community activists and residents living in the area have long called for the closure of the airport because of safety and health concerns.
After a crash in January 2022, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors looked into closing the airport. In April of that year, a pilot died after a Cessna crashed alongside the 210 Freeway in Sylmar after taking off from Whitman Airport. Previously, in November 2020, a Cessna crashed in a residential area near the airport’s runway, killing a Civil Air Patrol pilot.
In a January letter, federal aviation authorities warned the county that the land purchased with federal funds carried an obligation that included operating the property as an airport unless the FAA formally released it.
In a written statement, Los Angeles City Councilmember Monica Rodriguez said she had been calling for the airport to close since 2020 due to repeated crashes. She said she planned to call for more information about the crash.
“This [L.A. County]-owned airport is poorly managed and continues to place serious health and safety threats on the Pacoima community,” she said. “It’s time for the county to step up and make meaningful changes.”
The airport coalition said the airport played a critical role in public safety by supporting law enforcement, wildfire operations and emergency response.
“We understand this raises concerns and we are committed to keeping the community informed as more information becomes available,” the coalition said in its statement.
