Posted on 06/08/2003 12:34:00 PM PDT by FairOpinion
LOS ANGELES — The death toll rose to four as emergency workers continued to search for those killed when a plane crashed into an apartment building and ignited the structure a block from the trendy Melrose Avenue shopping district.
Police did not release the identities of the dead, but the wife of pilot Jeffrey T. Siegel of West Los Angeles told the Los Angeles Times in an article published Sunday that authorities said her husband was among those killed in the crash.
Siegel's family said the contractor and his niece, Jessica Kaplan, 24, were flying to the family's second home in Sun Valley, Idaho. They did not know if anyone else was flying in the plane.
Authorities said two passengers appeared to have been killed in the crash, as well a man living in the building.
Judy Gantz Siegel called her husband a "very skilled pilot", who had flown since he was a teen. She said he recently acquired his plane.
"He had the ability to land the plane if it malfunctioned," she said. "I can't believe it. I want to hear an explanation of what happened. He is such a good pilot."
Siegel said on Saturday that she broke the news of his death to their 8-year-old and 10-year-old sons.
Kaplan's family described her as a screenwriter who had written for New Line Cinema, the newspaper reported.
Seven other people were hurt in the disaster.
A firefighter suffered a slight hand injury Friday night when he fell about 10 feet through an upper-story floor. He was treated and sent back to work.
Three others were taken to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. One was treated and released, another transferred to a burn center, and the third was in stable condition late Saturday, a hospital spokeswoman said.
Photographer and waiter Casey Cunningham, 25, was upgraded to stable condition at Grossman Burn Center with second- and third-degree burns to 18 percent of his body. He had third-degree burns on his hands, arms, fingers and ears and second-degree burns to his face, head and neck.
"He's alert. He's talking," spokeswoman Jamie Feldstein said.
Cunningham had been concerned about his wife, who is 22 weeks pregnant, but she was at work when the crash occurred.
"They lost everything, including two cats," Feldstein said.
But by Saturday night, friends of the couple had already begun to raise funds for them, planning an improvisational comedy benefit show.
Meanwhile the search continued for more possible victims, even though Fire Capt. Bill Wick said that all 17 people believed to have been inside the 15-unit building had been accounted for.
"Who knows who might have wandered in there — friends, family," he said.
Investigators also continued to hunt for clues as to what caused the single-engine plane — believed to be a six-seat Beechcraft Bonanza BE-36 — to crash Friday afternoon, minutes after it took off from Santa Monica Airport, Federal Aviation Administration officials said.
Authorities said there was no evidence of terrorism.
While most apartments were undamaged, city inspectors determined that the building was unsafe and posed an extreme danger to emergency workers.
The aircraft left a crater in the center of the building as it plunged through the roof and two stories of apartments. It hit a car as it landed in the basement parking level. A blade from the propeller was found on the roof.
Officials said they hoped to extract the plane from the gutted building Sunday.
But at the same time, when it first occurred, it didn't take wearing tin foil hats, to suspect terrorism.
"Police initially sent in counterterrorism, hazardous materials and bomb squad units, but after a preliminary investigation determined the crash was an accident and turned it over to the National Transportation Safety Board, Assistant Police Chief Jim McDonnell said." This from another article: http://www2.ocregister.com/ocrweb/ocr/article.do?id=42806§ion=NEWS&subsection=FOCUS_REGION_STATE&year=2003&month=6&day=8
Yes it did. And if the guy had had an Arab name instead of a Jewish one, lots of Freepers would be going "Aha!" right now on no more evidence than we have with this pilot.
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