No issues reported with pilot, plane in fatal crash
The pilot who was killed Thursday when the twin-engine airplane he was flying crashed into a North Las Vegas home had a clean record with the Federal Aviation Administration and the aircraft had never been involved in an accident, an FAA spokesman said Tuesday.
The pilot, William J. Leahy Jr., 38, of Redwood City, Calif., had no record of enforcement action against him based on a search of the FAA database, said Ian Gregor, spokesman for the FAA's Western-Pacific Region. The plane he was flying, a Piper PA-31-350 Navajo Chieftain, owned by Aeronet Supply of Gardena, Calif., had no record of accidents.
Leahy was the only person on board the aircraft when it crashed into a house on North Jones Boulevard one mile short of the North Las Vegas Airport, where he was trying to return after reporting engine trouble to air traffic controllers a short time after taking off for Palo Alto, Calif.
People inside the house escaped without serious injuries.
The fatal crash was the second in a six-day span involving an airplane leaving the North Las Vegas Airport. On Aug. 22, Mack Creekmore Murphree, 76, of Dayton, crashed an experimental aircraft into a house, killing him and a couple inside the house.
