One woman died and five others were injured on Saturday when a single-engine plane (a Lancair IV) landed on its belly and skidded about 250 feet before crashing into the rear of a parked car on a stretch of Southern California’s Interstate 15.
The same plane, which was previously owned by major league catcher Matt Nokes, had landed safely in the same stretch of highway near San Diego over a decade ago.
According to the Associated Press, pilot Dennis Hogg, 62, his female passenger, and three other passengers of the parked black Nissan Altima sedan into which the plane crashed suffered major injuries. The Press Enterprise reports that Antoinette Isabelle, 38, of San Diego died upon impact. She was sitting in the rear passenger seat of the vehicle.
The driver was parked on the side of the road because he was attempted safely to synchronize his phone’s bluetooth to his vehicle.
News reports indicate that one man said he did not hear the plane’s engine as it flew overhead, indicating there may have been a mechanical error. The plane reportedly went completely into the trunk of the car and pushed it so far in that it was almost in the rear passenger seat.
Nokes, who spent over a decade playing with the Detroit Tigers and New York Yankees, told the AP that he went on to fly the plane every day for five years without incident before selling it, and that he had rebuilt it several times since the 2000 incident.
He reportedly said the I-15 freeway is a popular route for flying because there are fewer flight restrictions there than along the Interstate 5 corridor.
In October of 2006, New York Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle and his certified flight instructor crashed a single engine airplane into the Belaire Apartments in New York’s Upper East Side. Lidle and his instructor perished in the crash and 21 people, including 11 firefighters, were injured.
Follow Adelle Nazarian on Twitter @AdelleNaz.
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