Investigation continues into fatal helicopter crash
Eyewitness to Somis accident saw the craft fly into power lines

According to a preliminary re- port released by flight safety of- ficials, the helicopter crash in Somis on Sept. 6 that killed two Southern California Edison Co. employees was caused by the aircraft's flight into power lines.

The report's findings were based on an eyewitness account of the crash.

Officials with the National Transportation Safety Board, the agency that issued the report, would not say what caused the Hughes 369D helicopter to be- come entangled in the 75-foot- high lines.

The ongoing investigation will include an inspection of the helicopter's debris, its engine and a full toxicology and medical ex- amination of the pilot and passen- ger, authorities said.

The report said the lines were suspended from poles located from a quarter- to a half-mile apart. Two lines were cut and a third was dam- aged, according to the report.

"The helicopter's impact course appeared nearly perpen- dicular to the orientation of the power lines," the report said.

Flying out of Edison's facility in Ventura, pilot Benny Kleven, 41, and passenger Keith King, 48, were on a routine inspection flight to check on power lines, an Edison spokesman said.

Aerial inspections are done by Edison in remote areas where it's difficult for ground crews to look over the lines that crisscross the 50,000 square miles served by the utility company.

The helicopter crashed off a dirt road in the WD Sence Ranch. The 1,700-acre property is situ- ated behind the Solano Verdes Ranches gated community near Bradley Road and Highway 118.

The helicopter crash is the sec- ond fatal aircraft accident in Somis in a little more than two months.

On July 1, two members of a Santa Barbara family were killed and two others were injured when their single engine plane crashed into a drainage ditch in a Somis lemon orchard.

NTSB officials said the inves- tigation into this month's crash is continuing.

-Daniel Wolowicz