Two Exec Jets Flying

Speaking of private flying, the most dangerous local airport of 2007 turned out to be County-owned McClellan-Palomar in Carlsbad, with a total of five fatalities in two separate accidents. The first, on April 29, involved the crash into the ocean of a Cessna 182Q shortly after takeoff. There were three victims, the pilot and his wife and stepdaughter, who were flying home to Phoenix. The airport’s next fatal crash came on July 3, when a Beechcraft E90 collided with a 55-foot-high power line shortly after takeoff on a morning with one-quarter-mile visibility, according to a National Transportation Safety Board report. The pilot and his passenger, bound for Tucson, were killed, and a worker on the golf course below was slightly injured when he was hit by debris as he jumped off his lawn mower. The crash so ruined the third hole of Carlsbad’s new $68 million municipal golf course that its grand opening had to be delayed, disappointing local duffers. No final determination of cause has been made for either crash.