Pilot killed in WWII-era plane crash at Camarillo Airport

By Daniel Wolowicz
camarillo@theacorn.com

John Mitchell McKittrick, a 42-year-old Thousand Oaks resident, was killed Sun., July 15 around 8 a.m. when his WWII-era plane, a P-51D Mustang, crashed at the Camarillo Airport. 

Craig Stevens, a senior deputy medical examiner with the Ventura County Medical-Examiner's office, confirmed McKittrick was killed in the morning crash. He said an autopsy was pending. 

According to Capt. Mark Taillon with the Ventura County Fire Department, witnesses said McKittrick was practicing takeoffs and landings in the single-engine airplane for about 20 minutes when it flipped and crashed off runway number 26.

McKittrick, who was practicing with a flight instructor, was performing a solo landing for the first time when the plane crashed, Taillon said. The instructor was standing near the runway during the accident, said Kellie Knauss, who works in the operations department at the airport.

Knauss said she was unfamiliar with the McKittrick's name. She said, however, McKittrick would of had considerable flight experience given the type of plane he was flying.

"You don't get into a plane like that without having a lot of experience," Knauss said.

Casey DeBree, a member of the Commemorative Air-Force Southern California Wing in Camarillo , likened the powerful WWII fighter plane to a Formula One racecar.

"It's easy to get into trouble if you're not very careful," DeBree said. "It's characteristic of these high-power aircrafts that you have to be very ginger in the way you apply the power at low speeds."

For the past two years, McKittrick was an assistant football coach at Oaks Christian High School for the freshman and sophomore team.

"John enjoyed airplanes. He loved to fly," said Jan Hethcock, the high school's athletic director.

He said McKittrick and his wife, Michele, have been actively involved in the school since it was built in 2000.

Hethcock said Michele McKittrick, a personal trainer, runs a physical education program for middle school students and is also the conditioning coach for a number of the high school's athletic teams.

McKittrick and his wife have two children who attend the private school in Westlake Village--a daughter in the eighth grade and a son who is a sophomore, Hethcock said.

"He was a great dad, an excellent husband, a great friend of the school...He's really going to be missed. It's touching a lot of lives," Hethcock said.

The McKittrick Fitness Center, the school's weight and exercise room, is named after the family.

 "They are just a tremendous family," Hethcock said. "They were very involved with our school before their kids were even in the school."

According to organizers of the Gathering of Mustangs and Legends Air Show, an Ohio-based show dedicated to P-51 Mustangs, only 150 of the planes are in flight worthy condition. DeBree said the rare vintage plane cost between $1 million to $1.5 million.

Georgia Strunsaker, a senior air safety investigator with National Transportation and Safety Board, said a preliminary report on the crash would not be ready until later this month. She said the NTSB is still collecting reports from witnesses and that it's too early to comment on what caused the accident.

Strunsaker said McKittrick did not radio the air traffic controllers directly before the crash to report a malfunction with the plane.

Sunday's crash was the third fatal aircraft accident in Pleasant Valley in a little more than a year. 

In July 2006, two members of a Santa Barbara family were killed and two others injured when their single-engine plane crashed into a drainage ditch in a Somis lemon grove. And in September 2006, two Southern California Edison employees were killed when their helicopter clipped power lines at a rural ranch in Somis.