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Mountain View’s neighboring city to the north was all but shut down Wednesday after a small passenger plane crashed in East Palo Alto, killing all three people aboard the plane and causing a full-scale power outage throughout the city of Palo Alto. Power was restored shortly before 6 p.m.
The plane, a twin-engine Cessna 310R, came down at 7:55 a.m. Wednesday morning at Beech and Pulgas streets. FAA officials said it had just taken off at Palo Alto Airport and was headed to Southern California.
The plane’s pilot and two passengers, all employees of the Tesla electric car company, were confirmed dead. There were no injuries or fatalities on the ground.
Emergency officials said the outage had little direct impact on Mountain View, although “If they need help we’re standing by,” said Lynn Brown, Fire Department spokesman and emergency specialist. “We’re going to send as much as they need.”
The plane was under a dense fog advisory with zero to one-quarter-mile visibility when it took off. One witness told KTVU that the plane clipped a transmission tower before crashing into the ground.
Authorities said the plane knocked out a transmission tower as well as a utility tower and power lines. Non-localized transmission lines were cut off, knocking out power to the region, including to homes and businesses and to traffic lights at intersections. Power flickered as far north as Belmont and as far south as San Antonio Road.
“It looks like the main transmission line that runs along 101” was knocked out, Brown said. “It’s the major inlet for (power), so that’s why it’s such a large area.”
In Palo Alto, all major retail and businesses were shut down for the day, and traffic lights caused some delays along major roads. The underpass at Embarcadero Road beneath Alma was flooded, reportedly because a pump that keeps the road clear was not running.
Stanford Hospital was running on generators, and some patients were sent elsewhere. Only major surgeries and procedures were being performed.
In East Palo Alto, parts of the plane including a wing came off and landed on homes, according to Menlo Park Fire Chief Harold Schapelhouman, but that the body of the plane landed in the street and skidded a distance. The pieces that fell caused at least two homes to catch fire, he said.
Among the buildings hit was that of Lisa Jones, who operates a day care center out of her home.
“Everybody got out safely,” said Pamela Houston, who works there and was feeding an 11-month-old when a piece of the plane hit the house.
“We initially heard the boom part of the explosion,” she said. “As we were running out of the house we saw the debris falling and hitting other houses.”
Luckily, she said, only one child had been dropped off so far that morning.
“Normally it’s more,” she said. “We’re just counting it to the glory and honor of God.”
Lois Ingram was waiting for her mother, Sandra Watts, who also works at the day care center, to appear from down the roped-off block. She said she had spoken to her mother over the phone, but that she’s “too shaken up to say anything right now.”
Despite serious impact in neighboring cities, Mountain View officials said Wednesday afternoon they had heard no related reports.
Brown said the city of Palo Alto is working with the county to determine need for support.
“I talked to them about half an hour ago and they … did not have a formal request yet” for help, he said Wednesday.
Sad to hear that the pilot and passengers did not make it. I send condolences to the family members. I pray for strength for the family that have to find a new place to live or rebuild.
Iam glad the people living in those neighborhood didn’t lose any lives. People who use Palo Alto airport need to be mindful of the people living around those neighborhoods. The well-to-dos who are using this neighborhood for their flying adventure need to be more cautious and careful during bad weather days so that it doesn’t cause all these subsequent events like fires and power outagess,smoke,evauation,etc…
I guess this may be old news now but here is a pretty interesting blog post from somebody on the ground when this whole thing happened:
http://tinyurl.com/yb94mg6
Kanank… the pilots are hardly using EPA for their flying adventure, and are very mindful of avoiding a fiery death. The airport had visibility of about 1nm at the time of departure, and the pilot filed a flight plan (which indicates he was following instrument flight rules). The procedure for southbound departures is to turn RIGHT off the runway 10 degrees and continue climbing until the Dumbarton prior to turning left (to reduce noise in EPA)… the ‘Left Dumbarton’ departure. There is no way this pilot purposefully flew over EPA for an ‘adventure’. One of the most dangerous places to be flying is in a light twin aircraft which loses an engine shortly after takeoff… it requires quick decisive action on the pilot’s part to 1) identify that the engine has lost power, 2) feather the prop on the bad engine to reduce the drag it is producing (and the resulting yawing moment trying to turn the aircraft in the direction of the lost engine), 3) check the airspeed… if it is close to the minimum control speed, reduce power and descend to gain speed (or enter an inverted spin and certain death), otherwise bank 5 degrees toward the good engine and increase power on the good engine to maintain altitude. If these do not happen quickly and in the right order, the results are usually catastrophic. My guess is that the pilot lost an engine shortly after takeoff, never made it out of the fog and was trying to keep above the minimum control speed by descending when he hit the power lines. Managing all these things in the fog, where the pilot is using instruments to fly rather than visual and with the worst possible scenario (engine out after takeoff) is alot to handle even for experienced pilots… knowing exactly what to do, remembering it in an emergency situation and doing it in time is very difficult. I recall a discussion with a very light jet manufacturer that indicated some of their experienced pilots when flying emergencies in simulations forgot the aircraft had a parachute. The way the mind works under such conditions is hard to predict… a couple of sites you should read before coming to the conclusion that this tragedy is the result of someone out on a joy ride over EPA:
http://www.avweb.com/news/airman/184438-1.html
http://www.dr-amy.com/rich/flying/kpao.html#dep
http://www.countyairports.org/docs/PilotInsert-PAO.pdf
Saddened for the families of the deceased. Also saddened that nothing is being done to help the family who lost their home.