NTSB cites faulty door in plane crash that killed Huntington Beach father and his daughter

An experimental amateur-built small plane that slammed into a furniture warehouse near Fullerton Airport, killing the pilot and his teenage daughter in the passenger seat and injuring 19 victims on the ground, had defects in a door that appears to have contributed to the collision, the National Transportation Safety Board said in a preliminary report.

The Jan. 2 crash in the 2300 block of Raymer Avenue killed Pascal Reid of Huntington Beach and his 16-year-old daughter Kelly, a junior at Huntington Beach High School who played varsity soccer, lacrosse and flag football at the school.

The collision sparked a fire and led to eight serious and 11 minor injuries.

The parts for the Vans Aircraft RV-10 were shipped to Reid between 2007 and 2008, the NTSB reported. It was assembled in 2011.

Before the accident, an acquaintance of the pilot saw Reid taxi the airplane from the pilot’s hangar in the southeast corner of the airport, the NTSB said.

Surveillance video shows that the left door of the plane was in the down position, but “it was not flush with the fuselage,” the NTSB reported.

Just after he took off Reid radioed “immediate landing required,” the NTSB reported.

Reid was told to land on any runway, and he said he would try to land on runway 24.

Candles and flowers were left outside of a furniture warehouse in Fullerton where a small plane crashed on Jan. 2, taking the lives of Huntington Beach High student Kelly Reid, 16, and her father, Pascal Reid.

(Eric Licas)

One witness said the plane appeared to be flying at a high speed at takeoff, the NTSB reported.

“Once the airplane had departed the runway environment ... he realized its left door was open and up,” the NTSB reported. “He saw an arm reach up and pull the door down. By this time the airplane was far enough away that he could no longer discern what was happening, and he assumed the pilot was able to rectify the situation.”

Multiple pilots who saw the plane reported that it was “flying lower than normal and banking aggressively left as it made the transition from downwind to base,” the NTSB reported. “Three then saw the airplane roll aggressively again to the left for what they assumed was a turn to final, all stating that they could almost see the full wing profile, and were concerned it may stall. The airplane then rolled right as its nose dropped, and dove toward the warehouse, where it collided in a fireball.”

A “retrofit kit” for the door assembly that was recommended to be installed on the planes was sent to the pilot in January 2010, the NTSB reported.

“Examination of the airplane wreckage revealed that the pilot had made a series of modifications to the standard door-locking system, including the use of solid steel locking pins rather than the kit-supplied aluminum pins, along with replacement of the UHMW polythene door blocks with chamfered aluminum blocks,” the NTSB reported. “Additionally, the secondary safety latch had not been installed, and the door latch indicator system had been modified.”

The LED warning lamps were designed to alert a pilot if a door wasn’t fully shut, but on Reid’s plane it “appeared that only two reed switches had been installed, with each mounted to the aft pillars of both doors. As such, the modified system would not have warned the pilot if the forward latch pins had failed to fully engage.”