OC plane crash pilot: Antonio Pastini
https://www.dailybulletin.com/2019/02/04/investigation-continues-on-plane-crash-in-yorba-linda-that-killed-5/
Family members identified the man on Monday whose small airplane crashed into a Yorba Linda neighborhood the day before, killing him and four other people on the ground, as a long-time pilot from Nevada who was visiting his daughter and granddaughter for the weekend.
Antonio Pastini, a 75-year-old restaurant owner from Nevada, took off from Fullerton Airport in his 1981 Cessna 414A at 1:39 p.m.
Less than 10 minutes later, the aircraft began to break up mid-flight.
The plane’s fuselage, engine, propeller and other pieces plunged down onto homes just east of the Yorba Linda Country Club, with parts slamming into a house in the 19900 block of Crestknoll Drive, setting the structure on fire and killing two men and two women inside.
Investigators with the Orange County Sheriff’s Department called one of Pastini’s daughters, Julia Ackley, at around midnight Sunday. He was the only person aboard. After she confirmed the airport he flew out of and his name, Ackley was told her father had died in the crash.
Pastini, who had also gone by Jordan Isaacson and was known for years as Ike, was married and had three adult daughters, seven grandchildren and four great grandchildren. Ackley, 49, who lives in Torrance, said her father was an an experienced pilot who flew planes for her entire life.
“He loved that plane,” she said. “It was his baby.”
Federal aviation investigators on Monday pored over the crash scene. Just around the corner, workers used blue tarps to cover the broken windows of a home in the 19700 block of Crestknoll Drive.
The windows were shattered when the engine and the propeller of the small Cessna smashed into the structure. Also damaged was a pillar on its front porch.
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A wing lies on the street on Crestknoll Dr. in Yorba Linda, CA on Monday, February 4, 2019 after a small plane came apart in mid-air and crashed a day earlier. The debris field from the crash covered several blocks with one home catching fire, top right. The pilot and four people on the ground died. (Photo by Paul Bersebach, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Eliott Simpson, an investigator for the National Transportation Safety Board, said on Sunday that video from residents in the area appeared to show that the Cessna started to break up before making a sharp dive into the neighborhood at around 1:45 p.m. Simpson said the debris field spanning about four blocks was typical of an aircraft starting to come apart mid-flight.
The plane’s fuselage crashed into a ravine at the bottom of a hill nearby. It’s not clear what part of the plane smashed into the home in the 19900 block of Crestknoll that caught fire and was almost completely destroyed.
The four people killed inside the home had not been identified yet. A Sheriff’s Department commander said coroner’s investigators were having trouble getting access to the bodies, still in the rubble.
Two others had moderate injuries and were taken to the UC Irvine Health Regional Burn Center, said sheriff’s spokeswoman Carrie Braun; where they were when the incident occurred was not disclosed, and neither were their latest conditions.
It was unclear how many homes suffered damage and the severity.
Ackley said her father bought the 1981 Cessna about a year ago. He had gotten work done on the aircraft since then, including a new paint job and the installation of a new motor.
Pastini flew the plane frequently, often flying in from Nevada to Fullerton Airport to see Ackley and her daughter on weekends. Both had flown in the aircraft with Pastini a few times, including a flight last month.
Her father flew into Fullerton on Friday night. She and her daughter had lunch with him the next day, when he promised to come back next weekend to watch the girl play in her first softball game.
“I talked to him later that evening, and asked him to please let me know when he made it home safely,” Ackley said. “He said he loved me and that was the last I heard from him.”
She later saw news about the crash, but didn’t think anything of it. She wouldn’t learn about her father’s death until around midnight on Sunday when she got a call from an Orange County Sheriff’s Department investigator.
Residents on the ground in Yorba Linda said they thought the crash sounded like a bomb going off in their neighborhood.
The crash occurred just a few hours before the Super Bowl between the Los Angeles Rams and the New England Patriots. The neighborhood was packed with residents and visitors, some who were cooking in their backyards while getting ready to watch the game.