Aircraft Crashes onto Golf Course

[Helicopterfriend]

1980 Cessna 172RG Cutlass C/N 172RG0224 N4677V, made a hard landing on a golf course

http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2013/04/29/single-engine-cessna-makes-hard-landing-at-westlake-golf-course/

Just read this story:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/29/california-plane-crashes-connected_n_3181920.html

[THoff]

Apparently the hard landing was the result of a mid-air collision with another aircraft that resulted in a fatality.

[THoff]

The second aircraft appears to have been N64030.

[Doug Robertson]

A second body in mangled aircraft wreckage near Los Virgenes Road and Mulholland Highway was found Tuesday 30 April 2013 as authorities continued the investigation of the mid-air crash of the two aircraft, and subsequent emergency hard landing by N4677V, a Cessna 172 on Westlake Golf Course in Westlake Village, California. Three CFI's were aboard N4677V on a test flight, taking off from Santa Monica Airport SMO about 1:53 pm and one emerged with blood on his hands, according to an eyewitness maintenance worker at the course. All three CFI occupants had minor injuries. The other aircraft's pilot body had been found Monday evening.

According to golfer witnesses, N4677V cleared the Course's practice driving range nets by about ten feet. These nets are about 70 feet high and shield the adjacent Ventura Freeway 101 from errant golf balls. The three occupants worked for AmeriFlyers at Santa Monica Airport SMO which is a Texas-based flight training corporation. The NTSB senior investigator said N4677V went in "pretty steep".

Both Cessna 172s had taken off from SMO, the other Cessna 172 N64030 at 1:40 pm. It was unclear it's destination. Radar had N4677V at about 3,400 feet just before the midair crash about 2 pm with the other 172 at about 3,300 feet altitude. The mid-air crash occurred above an unincorporated area of Calabasas near Malibu State Park just south of Mulholland Highway in the Santa Monica Mountains.

More photos of the two aircraft prior to the crash are on this site.

[Doug Robertson]

Positive Identities of the two dead in the mid-air crash have not been established by the Los Angeles Coroner's Office because they were so badly burned. The fatalities were the pilot and a passenger in N64030. The Coroner's Office said it may be several days before identity findings may be available.