Last Updated on December 8, 2019 by CCAR Staff
A plane that crashed into an Upland home and burned Nov. 7 was getting ready to land at Cable Airport on a flight from Torrance when a witness said its left wing dipped and the plane stalled before it went down, a preliminary report by the National Transportation Safety Board says.
The pilot, who had not been identified by the San Bernardino County Coroner’s Office, died in the fiery crash of the single-engine plane.
Matthew Tonello and his 22-month-old son, Emmitt, were inside the Overland Court house when the plane crashed into it, but they were able to escape.
The pilot owned the plane, a four-seater Cirrus SR22, the report says. Federal Aviation Administration records show the licensed pilot-owner had a Palos Verdes Estates address.
Witnesses said the Cirrus entered the traffic pattern behind another plane headed to Cable Airport before the 11 a.m. crash. The one witness said the first plane landed and the Cirrus was observed going “low and slow” while turning to begin its final approach, the NTSB report says.
“The witness reported that the left wing of the accident airplane dipped, and the airplane stalled and descended rapidly into a home,” the report says.
The Cirrus SR22 has an onboard airframe parachute, and witnesses after the crash pointed out a parachute hanging in trees after the crash. The NTSB preliminary report, made public on Tuesday, Dec. 3, did not mention the parachute.
The final NTSB report can take as long as a year to complete. The airplane’s burned remnants were taken away for more inspection.
