O.C. flight instructor one of 3 killed in plane crash
Personal Injury News
Article Date: 7/16/2009 | Resource: MLG
O.C. flight instructor one of 3 killed in plane crash
“Ladera Ranch resident was aboard plane that crashed near Hawthorne airport Wednesday.”
HAWTHORNE A Ladera Ranch flight instructor has been identified as one of three people killed aboard a single-engine airplane that crashed in a parking lot near Hawthorne airport.
Mustapha Sesay, a 38-year-old man from Ladera Ranch, was killed Wednesday afternoon after the Beechcraft G36 hit a building and a car it as it crashed at 3901 W. Jack Northrop Avenue. Rajesh Vashdey, a 40-year-old resident of Manhattan Beach, was also identified by Los Angeles Coroner officials as one of the passengers in the craft. The third passenger has not yet been identified because family has not yet been notified.
The crash was reported to have occurred at 4:24 p.m., about a quarter-mile southwest of the airport. The plane crashed into the northeast corner of a building and into a parked car, said Ian Gregor, spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration. Besides the three people aboard, no one else was injured in the crash.
The plane had just taken off from Hawthorne airport and was expected to make a local flight, Gregor said. No flight plan was turned in by the pilot. The plane was expected to fly in the area and then return to the airport.
Details on how the crash occurred were not immediately known. Investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board are on scene today to investigate how the crash occurred, Gregor said.
According to Federal Aviation Administration records, Sesay held an Airline Transport Pilot license. He was also a certified flight instructor.
Whether he was in the middle of a lesson when the crash occurred, or whether he was piloting the craft, is unknown. The pilot of the plane has also not been identified.
The plane was registered to a Lawndale flooring business named Carpet Pros. Nobody at the business could be immediately reached for comment.
For more information regarding this article please contact:
Jeffrey Marquart
(949)589-0150
jmarquart@marquartlawgroup.com