Plane Crash at Van Nuys

* The Nov. 14 crash by pilot Robert Olson has been well reported by this paper. However, there are three points that have never been brought forth.

In the Dec. 3 reporting (“Pilot Told Visibility OK Minutes Before Crash”), the time of departure from Las Vegas appears to have been after the closure of Burbank. It seems odd that clearance would be allowed to a closed field. As a pilot, I have been denied such clearance.

Olson was quoted as saying, “Has the airport in sight.” There is a great difference between looking down from 1,000 feet and seeing the field and looking ahead through a mile or more of foggy air.

Third, Van Nuys has a beacon across Roscoe Boulevard (north) and in line with the main runway, Runway 16. If the pilot had done a standard procedure to place himself north of the field and headed directly toward the beacon, he would also have been in perfect alignment with the main runway. With that alignment and at about 50 to 100 feet above the beacon as he crossed over it, he would have been looking through about 100 yards of fog to the end of the runway, and a safe landing should have been rather assured. That radio aid has been operating for several years and was placed there for just such a purpose.

ROBERT MUNSEY

Winnetka