2 Fliers Killed, 2 Survive as Planes Collide and Crash

A flight instructor and his student walked away from the wreckage of their plane after a collision with another plane over the San Gabriel Valley Sunday, but the pilot and passenger in the other craft died when it crashed.

The survivors’ plane, a Cessna 152, crashed in Azusa, a mile north of the 210 Freeway in an area known as the Fish Canyon river bed.

The other plane, a Cessna 120, crashed about three miles away in the Santa Fe Dam Recreation Area in Irwindale. The names of the dead were withheld pending notification of relatives.

The collision took place at 3:42 p.m. under clear skies and in good weather, officials said. The survivors, Stefano Sturlese, 21, of South Pasadena and Randolph Barrows Jr., 28, of Los Angeles told Azusa police that Barrows, a student pilot, was practicing some turns over the river bed when, according to Azusa police Sgt. John Broderick, “Their plane was struck from above by another aircraft, that the wheel struck them in the windshield. And they descended ‘rapidly’--those were his (Barrows’) words.”

Sturlese then “took over and tried to land it on the service road next to the river bed,” Broderick said. But the plane hit a chain link fence and landed nose down in a ravine.

A small fire that broke out in the engine was quickly doused by the Los Angeles County Fire Department. Sturlese and Barrows, whose ages and home towns were not disclosed, were taken to Santa Teresita Hospital in Duarte, where they were treated for minor facial scrapes.