Can anyone tell me more about the plane crash at the Riverside, CA airport ?

Question

I have friends in Riverside.

Answer 1

A Cessna 172 & a Cessna 150 (or 152) had a mid-air.  Beyond that, wait for about a week to get the NTSB preliminary report to get the facts.

http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/query.asp

Answer 2

I was just there on Saturday and it seemed so quiet compared to ten years ago when it had a large foreign student pilot population using it as a practice airport. When I flew in their in the past,  it was hard to understand what they where saying and they usually used larger than normal traffic patterns.

Answer 3

I used to fly in the LA basin as a CFI and I did many landings at Corona.  After a few times in and out of there I learned to avoid that airport.  It seems to be the gravitational center of most of the absolute worst pilots in California.

My guess is someone deviated from a standard traffic pattern entry and at least one of those aircraft was not transmitting its position properly.  At least one and probably both pilots were deviating from the uncontrolled airport procedures outlined in the Aeronautical Information Manual (AIM).

Answer 4

It was in Corona, twenty miles from Riverside!

Answer 5

AIR TRAGEDY: Wreckage probed at the scene in Corona

The wreckage of a plane lies in the back parking lot of Victor Buick Sunday evening in Corona. (Jerry Soifer / The Press-Enterprise) Investigators are still sorting through the wreckage of a midair collision between two private planes over a Corona auto dealership Sunday afternoon.

Five people are confirmed dead — four from the two planes and one inside the auto dealership. The victims have not been identified.

The narrow road running between several car dealerships in the area will be closed until around noon today as authorities try to determine what caused the crash.

The accident occurred about a mile from the Corona Municipal Airport where shock of the crash still resonated.

"Anything dealing with flying, there's always risks involved," said Tina Mitchell, who parents own Country Bob's Chili and Chow Hall at the Corona airport. "Any pilot knows that. They do it because they love to fly and take that risk.

—John Asbury

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