Pilot error suspected cause of plane crash

Pilot error was the probable cause of the July 15 plane crash at the Camarillo Airport that killed 42yearold Thousand Oaks resident, John Mitchell McKittrick, according to a preliminary report released earlier this week by the National Transportation and Safety Board.

McKittrick was killed around 8 a.m. Sun., July 15 when his WWIIera plane, a P51D Mustang, crashed and flipped off runway 26 at the local airport.

The NTSB report confirmed earlier witness accounts that McKittrick had been practicing take offs and landings with a flight instructor minutes before the crash. According to the report, the airplane landed and the flight instructor exited the vintage plane. McKittrick, an experienced pilot who was performing his first solo flight in the highpowered airplane, took off and then returned to land.

While landing, the report said, "the pilot initiated a go around, and the airplane immediately rolled left and impacted the ground beside the runway in an inverted position."

Federal Aviation Administration records show the airplane was registered to Defiance Aviation LLC of Ketchum, Idaho. Attempts to contact Defiance Aviation were unsuccessful.

- Daniel Wolowicz