THREE DIE IN CRASH FIERY IMPACT HORRIFYING TO WITNESSES.

Byline: Naush Boghossian and Nicholas Grudin Staff Writers

AGUA DULCE - Three people died in a fiery crash north of Los Angeles on Sunday when a plane plummeted onto rocky terrain just after taking off from Agua Dulce airport, a tiny Old West-style town 44 miles north of Los Angeles, officials said.

``I was looking at it and thinking: Oh my god, it's going to hit us,'' said Marla Stark, who was horseback riding near the airport when she saw the plane approaching at a low altitude.

The twin-engine Piper originated from Whiteman Airport in Pacoima and was taking off from Agua Dulce after stopping for lunch there, according to Operations Officer Jim Meloon of the Federal Aviation Administration.

It crashed at about 1 p.m. in a remote area near Caprock and Yucca Hills roads, about 60 miles northwest of Los Angeles, said Clyde Taylor of the Los Angeles County Fire Department.

Michael Riddle, supervising investigator for the Los Angeles County Coroner's Office, said late Sunday night three bodies were found burned beyond recognition. Early reports said there were four victims.

Don Campbell, 63, of Studio City was flying his Cessna 152 about a mile and a half from Agua Dulce airport when he saw a black plume of smoke.

``Boy, it's tragic,'' said Campbell, sitting at a bar in Whiteman Airport.

``All of a sudden there was a big column of black smoke with flames beneath it,'' he said, adding that it appeared the plane crashed after it tried to take off from the hill-bound No. 4 runway.

None of the three victims was identified by Sunday evening, and airport officials at Whiteman Airport declined to comment on the registration of the plane, its owner, or the crash.

With a run-down barn and a rocky canyon in the backdrop, little was left of the small plane at the crash site, save blackened dirt, ashes, scraps of metal and a brush fire caused by the jet fuel explosion.

David Aiello of Agua Dulce was watching as the plane struggled to get off the runway at the airport about a mile away from the crash.

``He never gained speed and then he stalled going into the canyon,'' Aiello said, explaining that the plane took off sluggishly at the edge of the runway instead of from the middle, where planes usually leave the ground.

Aiello, like Campbell, noticed that the plane was taking off in a seldom- used direction on the slightly inclined runway, going uphill instead of downhill to gain speed as pilots usually do.

``I thought: That's nuts - he's going uphill,'' Campbell said. ``They probably got just off the ground and couldn't clear the hill - which might as well have been the Empire State Building.

``That's a spooky airport.''

Stark and her riding companion, Rikki Boswell, both of Agua Dulce, were riding when they looked up in shock at the image of an out-of-control plane bearing down on them.

``It was swerving ... and flying really, really low,'' said Stark, who started to run when she realized what was happening.

Boswell jumped onto her horse and galloped away from the plane.

``I heard a loud crunch of metal and a huge explosion,'' Boswell said, adding that when she looked back over her shoulder, all she could see was a ball of flames.

The plane crashed about 200 feet away from the two women.

Sunday's plane crash was the second in as many days near the San Fernando Valley. Saturday morning, a private airplane crash landed in the Sepulveda Basin Recreation Area, narrowly avoiding a crowd of about 40 model airplane enthusiasts, but nobody was injured.

Staff Writer Dana Bartholomew contributed to this report.

CAPTION(S):

photo, map

Photo:

(color) Sheriff's deputies examine the wreckage of a small plane that crashed Sunday afternoon near Wyse Road and Yucca Hills Road after taking off from Agua Dulce airport. The crash killed three people and ignited a small brush fire.

Gene Blevins/Special to the Daily News

Map:

(ran in Valley, Final and SAC edition only) Plane crash