Airplane Crash


by Marty Rubin

A small plane crashed into the rear of a house in the 3300 block of Mountain View Avenue in Mar Vista, setting the home on fire. The Malibu couple, Paul Tobias, a psychologist age 71, the pilot, and his wife, Paula, a sculptor, age 60, were both killed.


The occupant in the house, James Whiting, 57, was talking on his cell phone in his living room when he "felt an enormous shudder and crash". He said that the kitchen area, just about 10 feet away, was engulfed in a huge ball of orange flames. He was not injured and his family was not home at the time. The accident occurred at approximately 5:04 p.m. on Tuesday, March 16.

There was a thick fog covering the area after the crash, investigation will determine whether fog was enough at the time to have caused the pilot of the small plane to lose visibility. Eyewitnesses had observed the plane circling around the neighborhood several times before it clipped power lines and garages and then plummeted into the home’s kitchen.

The accident site was approximately one-half mile southeast of Santa Monica Airport. The neighborhood is part of what is called "Hilltop Mar Vista". The area is densely packed with houses. Eyewitnesses observed that the nearby Little League field was populated and that in a clubhouse type building adjacent to the ball field, a children’s birthday party celebration was going on shortly after the crash. The neighborhood was described as feeling quite surrealistic after the crash as dense fog and darkness increased. Firefighters along with many news crews scrambled furiously about. The couple was on approach to Santa Monica Airport. It was believed that they had never made contact with air traffic controllers at that airport. The plane was identified as a small, single-engine Mooney M20. The couple had been flying from Mammoth/Yosemite Airport to Santa Monica.

Residents report that when the weather is overcast or foggy, planes often fly south of the airports runway and miss the airport. They have to circle around and try again. It is most frightening, they say, when the large commuter jets fly in low and miss the airport.

Neighbors near the crash site are affected long after the fire is put out and the news crews go away. Now, when a small plane sputters, as they sometimes do, a new feeling of fear comes over them. A neighbor that I spoke to nine days after the crash told me that their child is having recurring nightmares about the crash. Another neighbor said she wants the airport closed. Everyone agrees that Santa Monica airport is much more threatening, noisy and polluting since the arrival of jets.

So far there has not been a crash involving a jet, but as the new jets get older, and as their maintenance may be compromised, it seems that it is only a matter of time until something goes terribly wrong and a jet goes down. Which neighborhood will be subjected to the horrors of such an accident?

Posted: Sat - May 1, 2004 at 04:10 PM          

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