NTSB: Pilot in fatal Catalina crash ignored darkness warning

LOS ANGELES – The pilot of a small plane that crashed on take-off Catalina Airport last month, killing all five people on board, ignored a warning from the island’s airport manager that the flight would not be cleared because of darkness, according to a preliminary report released Wednesday by the National Transportation Safety Board.

The twin-engine Beechcraft 95-B55 crashed shortly after it took off from Catalina Airport in Avalon around 8 p.m. on Oct. 8, according to the NTSB and the Federal Aviation Administration.

The plane crashed about a mile west of the airport.

Were killed in the crash Haris Ali, 33, of Fullerton; Margaret Mary Fenner, 55; Ali Reza Safai, 73, of West Hills; Joeunpark, 37; and Gonzalo Lubel, 34.

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According to FAA records, the plane was registered to Safai, who was previously a flight instructor at the now-defunct Santa Monica Aviation, based at Santa Monica Airport.

Catalina Airport is open from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM, and aircraft operations are generally prohibited at all other times because it is not equipped with airport lighting.

According to the preliminary NTSB report released Wednesday afternoon, Oct. 8, a flight instructor and two student pilots were preparing to depart Catalina Airport in a rented single-engine aircraft, but the aircraft experienced a “preflight magneto disturbance” that prevented it from departure. The group contacted the flight school where the plane was rented and was told that another plane would fly from Santa Monica Airport to Catalina to pick up the group.

That plane, apparently piloted by Safai, an acquaintance of the flight school owner, took off from Santa Monica Airport around 6 p.m. on Oct. 8 with another person on board and landed in Catalina about 20 minutes later, according to the NTSB report. The manager of Catalina Airport gave permission for the plane to land at the airport even though the airport was closed at that time, but he instructed the pilot that the group had to leave before sunset at around 6:30 p.m., according to the report.

After landing at Catalina Airport, the pilots “shut down both engines, loaded the stranded pilots and attempted to restart the engines,” the NTSB said. “During the restart, the right engine would not start due to insufficient battery power. The occupants exited the aircraft and an extension cord was then connected to an on-board battery charger. The pilots were told by the airport manager that since the time required to charge the battery would take until after sunset, so a departure after sunset would not be approved.

“The pilot/aircraft owner informed the airport manager that he had to go and still intended to depart,” the preliminary NTSB report said. “The airport manager told him that although he could not stop him, his departure would not be approved and would be at his own risk.”

The plane then took off around 8 p.m. and crashed minutes after takeoff.

The NTSB report does not comment on the exact cause of the crash, which occurred on a ridge about a mile west-southwest of the runway.

According to the report, airport security video showed the plane attempting to take off amid “dark night conditions.”

“It was not possible to distinguish from the video whether or not the aircraft was in the air before it reached the end of the runway,” the report said. “As the aircraft reached the departure point of the runway, it descended out of view of the camera.”

The report notes that flight data shows the aircraft “may have become airborne around the center of the runway and remained at a low altitude until it reached the departure end of the runway,” after which it entered a gentle descent and turned made a right turn and then crashed.