Plane Crash...Lomita, CA

[FlyBoyJae]

-I WISH THE PILOT HIS BEST. HOPE HE CAN RECOVER FROM HIS INJURIES. I WONDER WHY/HOW HE WAS OPERATING WITH MINIMUM FUEL.
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LOMITA, Calif. (AP) A small plane running low on fuel crashed into a home Thursday as it headed for a landing at Torrance Municipal Airport, seriously injuring the pilot, authorities said.

The only person inside the home, an elderly woman, was stunned but not injured, neighbors said. No one else was in the plane.

The single-engine plane flipped upside down after punching a hole in the home's roof, sparking a small fire in the attic that was quickly extinguished.

The pilot, identified by the Daily Breeze newspaper as Jerry Hoke of Torrance, was pulled from the burning plane by people who live nearby. He was listed in critical condition at a nearby hospital, the newspaper said.

Hoke is a certified flight instructor and has a commercial pilot rating, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

Residents rushed to the crash scene and put out a small fire with garden hoses before breaking a window to pull the pilot out.

"Got the hose on first, to put the fire out," rescuer Steve Butorovich told KCAL-TV. "His legs were on fire, his hands were on fire."

The pilot had been cleared to land at Torrance Municipal Airport and told air traffic controllers just before the crash that he was running low on fuel, said FAA spokesman Donn Walker.

The plane hit some utility lines and clipped a large tree just before it nose-dived into the home, witnesses said.

The white six-seater plane was registered to the San Diego company Sakakibara Inc. and built in 1977. It crashed shortly after 5:30 p.m. less than a half-mile from the airport. Walker said he did not know where the plane took off from.

The plane was the fourth to crash into a Southern California home or apartment in the past 18 months.

"This is some of the most congested airspace in the country," Walker said. "When you have a lot of planes in the sky, there are going to be crashes. And over a very congested area like Los Angeles, it's going to crash in a populated area. It shouldn't surprise anyone."

Lomita is located about 20 miles south of downtown Los Angeles.

[Doug Taylor]

[ QUOTE ]
-I WISH THE PILOT HIS BEST. HOPE HE CAN RECOVER FROM HIS INJURIES. I WONDER WHY/HOW HE WAS OPERATING WITH MINIMUM FUEL.

Pretty easy!

Considering that the POH numbers are predicated on a brand new aircraft with a factory-fresh, properly-leaned engine, the data that you use to compute fuel burn could be off significantly.

[FlyBoyJae]

are commercial jet airliners just as bad/unreliable as most of the trainers when it comes to fuel gauges?

[Doug Taylor]

We measure fuel by weight and have significantly more precise measurements of fuel available and fuel burn.

[Bandit_Driver]

FlyBoy Jae: I'll agree with Doug on this one. I have ferried several planes for mx and have dipped and / or defueled the tanks to confirm fuel quantities at the begining and end.. Between the guauges and fuel totalizer and performance data given to us on the release we know our fuel down to about 25 lbs.

The guages in airliners use a transducer type system for measuring fuel which is very accurate. Smaller trainers and some cabin class twins use a float type system which can be very inaccurate.

Hope that helps

[aloft]

Sorry to hear the pilot suffered injuries and glad that no one was hurt on the ground!

My opinion is that any commercial pilot who suffers an accident due to fuel exhaustion should have their commercial privileges revoked. In the absence of some mechanical cause (fuel leak, siphon, etc) there's simply no excuse for it, and certainly not out of a pilot with a commercial ticket. CAP flight standards call for pilots to land with an hour's worth of fuel in the tanks--a great rule of thumb for GA operations.