A small two-seater plane crashed on Wednesday morning at the Van Nuys Airport. The crash was reported at 10:37 a.m., and responders were on the scene immediately to put out the fire.
The plane was reportedly involved in flight training carrying an instructor and a student. The crash was high-impact and described as a nose-first crash, meaning it burst into flames as soon as it reached the ground, leaving the male occupants dead.
When the firefighters arrived to put out the fire, they created a foam blanket to get to the passengers, but the crash left them unidentifiable.
According to the FlightAware tracker, the plane went around the airport twice, but the third loop happened quickly before it crashed.
It is still unknown how the accident happened; however, the audio tapes from the accident indicate that the pilot contacted the airport tower stating that the plane had stalled and asked for an emergency landing.
But only 14 minutes after it took off, it crashed. It was also reported that the exact plane had flown a dozen times during the week and had a successful landing between 7 and 8 a.m. on the same day of the incident. So, the reason behind the crash still remains a mystery and continues to be investigated.
Why Was the Crash Location Called “Unusual”?
There are still several questions surrounding this sudden plane crash. At the time of the accident, there was a police officer just a few feet away who saw it happen in real-time. But the officer could not do anything to help as the plane went into flames right away.
Another eyewitness, named John, said he noticed the big fire, indicating that the plane had a lot of fuel. But the explosion was not big enough to affect the neighboring houses.
As someone who has been part of the Van Nuys aviation team, John pointed out that the plane crash occurred at an unusual location.
He explained, “It’s not near the end of a runway. The possibilities of what happened are pretty varied. The air person could have stalled the airplane. It could’ve been a mechanical issue, or there could’ve been a medical issue.”A student pilot, Keith Matsushita, also explained how crucial it is to respond to a stall in a plane, especially in low altitudes. Matsushita said, “You’re too low to fly back to the airport, and you’re too high to survive the landing, so we pray that doesn’t happen to any of us pretty much every time we fly,”
According to reports, this was the third crash at the Van Nuys Airport in 2023, but this was the first one to lead to death in almost 20 years.The Federal Aviation Agency (FAA)and the National Transportation Safety Board are still investigating the crash and will release a report soon. However, we wish the families of the deceased strength during this painful time.
Here’s another story about a plane crash that killed six people.