Plane Crash-Lands in Hawthorne
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A light plane lost power and slammed into a sports car at a busy intersection today when a pilot tried to make an emergency landing at Hawthorne Airport. Authorities said the plane narrowly missed overhead power lines before it crashed at Northrop and Prairie avenues.
The pilot, Paul Arthur Fiala, 40, said he had taken off in the single-engine Navion earlier this morning from the Porterville, Calif., area and was headed for Torrance Airport when his engine failed. Fiala said he was attempting an emergency landing when the engine quit and the plane struck the car. The driver of the car, Brian Lastrapes, 23, and his passenger, Harold Jones, 23, suffered minor cuts and bruises in the accident.
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