Pilot in Deadly California House Crash Had License Suspended Twice

Pilot in Deadly California House Crash Had License Suspended Twice
Yorba Linda firefighters rush to a home engulfed in flames after a deadly small plane crash in Yorba Linda, Calif. on Feb. 3, 2019. (Kyle Vanderheide via AP, File)
The Associated Press
2/9/2019
Updated:
2/9/2019

LOS ANGELES—The pilot whose plane broke apart and crashed into a Southern California home, killing five people, was disciplined for dangerous flying years earlier, it was reported on Feb. 8.

Antonio Pastini, 75, of Gardnerville, Nevada, was flying home after visiting his daughter and granddaughter on Sunday when his Cessna began coming apart and debris slammed into a Yorba Linda home, which caught fire. Four people inside the house died.

Firefighters suppress a fire at the scene of a deadly plane crash in the residential neighborhood of Yorba Linda, Calif., on Feb. 3, 2019. (AP Photo/Alex Gallardo, File)
Firefighters suppress a fire at the scene of a deadly plane crash in the residential neighborhood of Yorba Linda, Calif., on Feb. 3, 2019. (AP Photo/Alex Gallardo, File)

The cause of the crash is under investigation.

Years earlier, Pastini, then using the name Jordan Albert Isaacson, had his license twice suspended by the Federal Aviation Administration, the Los Angeles Times reported Friday, citing records kept by the Library of Congress.

Pastini’s daughter, Julia Ackley, said her father’s birth name was Jordan Isaacson, but she didn’t say why he changed it. She wouldn’t address the police credentials.

“I'd prefer not to comment, and let the investigators do their job,” Ackley told KABC-TV. “My father is exactly who he said he was.”

She said he was a restaurant owner and an experienced pilot who flew regularly from his home in Nevada to visit family in California.

Firefighters work the scene of a deadly plane crash in the residential neighborhood of Yorba Linda, Calif., on Feb. 3, 2019. (AP Photo/Alex Gallardo)
Firefighters work the scene of a deadly plane crash in the residential neighborhood of Yorba Linda, Calif., on Feb. 3, 2019. (AP Photo/Alex Gallardo)

National Transportation Safety Board investigators have been collecting parts of the aircraft, the plane’s records and information about Pastini, who was described as a commercial pilot with an instrument flight rating.

In 1977, Pastini had his pilot’s license suspended for 120 days after he flew from Las Vegas to Long Beach, California, in cloudy and icy weather and falsely told an air traffic controller that he had “IFR clearance” that indicated he was capable of flying the route with instruments.

Selfie by Julia Ackley shows herself and her father, Antonio Pastini, at Lake Tahoe near Carson City, Nev. Pastini, who had also gone by Jordan Isaacson and was known for years as Ike, was killed while piloting a small plane that crashed into a house in Yorba Linda, Calif., on Feb. 3, 2019. (Julia Ackley via AP, File)
Selfie by Julia Ackley shows herself and her father, Antonio Pastini, at Lake Tahoe near Carson City, Nev. Pastini, who had also gone by Jordan Isaacson and was known for years as Ike, was killed while piloting a small plane that crashed into a house in Yorba Linda, Calif., on Feb. 3, 2019. (Julia Ackley via AP, File)

Pastini disregarded airspace rules and posed “a potential threat to himself, his passenger and other users of the system,” wrote an administrative law judge, Jerrell R. Davis.

In 1980, Pastini lost his license for 30 days after Davis found that his plane was behind on inspections, carried only an expired temporary registration and was “unairworthy” because of a hydraulic fluid leak from a break and other problems, the Times said.

The Times said the FAA confirmed that Isaacson was Pastini. The agency said he submitted two name changes to the FAA: first in 1991 from Jordan Albert Isaacson to Jordan Ike Aaron, then in 2008 to Antonio Peter Pastini.

Pastini told friends, family, and even newspapers that he was a retired Chicago police officer.

But Chicago police have said he never worked for them and a Chicago police badge he was carrying when he crashed had been reported lost in 1978.