A tragic plane crash on California’s Catalina Islands claimed the lives of five people, including the aircraft’s owner, 73-year-old flight instructor Ali Reza Safai. The twin-engine Beechcraft 95 crashed shortly after an unauthorized takeoff from Catalina Airport near Avalon city around 8 p.m. on Tuesday, according to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s Avalon Station was alerted to the crash by an SOS from one of the plane’s occupants. The five adult victims were found and declared dead at the crash site. The identities of the pilot and the other passengers remain unclear.
The cause of the crash is still under investigation. However, airport officials have confirmed that the plane was not authorized to depart at the time of the crash. The airport, which is situated approximately 1,600 feet above sea level, operates from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily. Pilots can arrive and depart after these hours, provided they have pre-arranged their trip with the airport.
The plane had landed at the airport around 6:20 p.m. on the day of the crash. The general manager of the airport, Carl True, stated that the pilot had pre-arranged his arrival after 5 p.m., but not the takeoff. The airport does not permit flights after sunset due to the lack of lighting on its 3,000-foot runway.
Despite the lack of clearance for the takeoff, the action was not deemed illegal. The other occupants of the plane were identified as Haris Ali, 33, and Margaret Mary Fenner, 55. The remaining two victims, both men in their 30s, have yet to be identified pending family notification.
Images of the wreckage released by the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Office’s Special Enforcement Bureau showed the severely damaged plane on the side of a hill, with the tail section detached. The tail of the plane was found about 300 feet from the crash site, according to Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Sgt. Grayson Kline.
Safai was a flight instructor at Santa Monica Airport and operated Santa Monica Aviation until its closure in 2018. His plane was housed at the airport, but it is still unknown if he was piloting the aircraft at the time of the crash. Proteus Flight school, another business at Santa Monica airport, revealed that Safai had volunteered to assist Proteus members who were stranded on the island due to mechanical issues.