Santa Monica Airport

Two people were killed when their single-engine aerobatic plane crashed shortly after takeoff Wednesday from Santa Monica Airport and burst into flames. The red, two-seat Marchetti SF-260 airplane, registered to Malibu-based Wingspan Inc., crashed about 5 p.m. at the west end of the runway, police and airport officials said. The identities of the two victims were being withheld until family members could be notified. Witnesses said the plane was immediately in trouble.

Each season that the semiannual Barneys New York Warehouse Sale comes to the Los Angeles area, it poses several philosophical questions: Is a $545 dress worth $545 just because it's been marked down from $1,800? No, according to one shopper, who put it back. Is it OK to deprive a toddler of his morning nap so he will snooze in his stroller while his mother shops? Indeed, said one multi-tasking parent. This summer, the Warehouse Sale, held for the last 14 years in a hangar at the Santa Monica Airport, changed mother ships and landed in the Los Angeles Convention Center, provoking another question: Would Westside devotees of high-end fashion leave their comfort zone and venture east?

From a 1919 Curtiss JN-4 Jenny that soared the sky in World War I to a flight simulator that can turn a 12-year-old into a fighter pilot, the Santa Monica Museum of Flying has captured history through its aircraft displays. But the museum will shut its hangar doors Sunday, pack up and venture to another location. Because of the rising cost of insurance since the Sept.

Norman Ernst isn't a pilot, but he knows all about airplanes, especially jets. He knows what they sound like, what they smell like and how much his bedroom window vibrates when one takes off from Santa Monica Airport. "There's one--can you smell it?" he shouts over the whine of a corporate jet as the plane revs its engines at the east end of the runway, less than 300 yards from Ernst's Sardis Avenue home.

It didn't take three planes tumbling from the sky to get the attention of neighbors of the Santa Monica Airport. Residents have complained for years about noise from planes landing and taking off, while pilots, for their part, have tried to explain the safety precautions they take and the inevitability of noise from what is one of the nation's busiest single-runway airports. But three fatal crashes in the past nine months have given the issue even more urgency.

A proposal to change the flight path for pilots approaching Santa Monica Airport in inclement weather is either one of the best things that's ever happened to the airfield or one of the worst, depending on whom you ask. Airport and federal aviation officials say the plan, which would allow planes to lock onto a signal from the nation's busiest single-runway airport, will make the skies safer and generate less noise for residents.

Opponents of a recently approved commercial and retail office project at Santa Monica Municipal Airport have launched a referendum drive to force the City Council to reverse its approval of the 822,000-square-foot project or put the matter on the ballot. Santa Monicans for the Public Trust, the community group organizing the referendum drive, has until Nov. 10 to collect 5,644 signatures, 10% of the city's registered voters.

The Federal Aviation Administration announced that temporary flight restrictions on private pilots will be in effect in the Los Angeles area between early Wednesday afternoon and Thursday morning. The restrictions coincide with a visit to Los Angeles by President Obama. An FAA statement said only airlines, law enforcement aircraft and air ambulances will be allowed within a 12-mile radius of Santa Monica Airport between 1:15 p.m. Wednesday and 7:40 a.m. Thursday.

Santa Monica Airport Project Sparks Suit: Citing environmental concerns, Mayor Tom Bradley supported a group of Mar Vista homeowners who filed suit Tuesday in Los Angeles Superior Court challenging plans for an office complex at Santa Monica Airport. The group, Homeowners Organized to Monitor the Environment, contends that the project's Environmental Impact Report fails to adequately address environmental problems that will be created. (Filed Jan. 2, 1990 Case No. C748009)