A small aircraft carrying two people crashed Thursday afternoon on Catalina Island, fire officials said. The plane, which was en route to the island, crashed on landing around 12:20 p.m. in Avalon in a rugged, not easily accessible area.
Air units will be restricted from responding to requests for service in the affected areas, effective immediately and until further notice. The Federal Aviation Administration had imposed restrictions on Air Support operations and all general aviation in neighborhoods in Los Angeles International Airport airspace covering three entire police divisions - Newton, 77th Street, Southeast, historically among the city's busiest - and a portion of a fourth, Pacific.
A Convair 440 spanned 81 feet and six inches with a wingspan of 105 feet, four inches. It held 52 passengers and only required a flight crew of two to three people. The 440 Metropolitan was powered by two 2,804.4-cubic-inch-displacement (45.956 liter), air-cooled, supercharged, Pratt & Whitney Double Wasp CB16 two-row, 18-cylinder radial engines with a compression ration of 6.75:1, a report on the aircraft from This Day in Aviation reads.
The airspace over Los Angeles is among the most congested in the world, but the Hollywood Burbank Airport is uniquely situated, creating extremely tight parameters around the midsize airport.
