[symple_heading style=”” title=”By Ken Stone” type=”h1″ font_size=”” text_align=”left” margin_top=”20″ margin_bottom=”20″ color=”undefined” icon_left=”” icon_right=””]
California Highway Patrol officials Monday identified the two people aboard a small plane that crashed on the San Diego (405) Freeway near John Wayne Airport.
Lawyer and CPA company founder Francis Pisano, 62, and Jana Pisano, 55, both of Cota de Caza, were taken to Orange County Global Medical Center in critical condition with spinal fractures and cuts following the crash, which occurred about 9:35 a.m. Friday.
The husband and wife are both expected to recover.
According to hp-cpas.com, the Santa Ana-based CPA firm of Hoffski & Pisano was founded in 1982 by James B. Hoffski and Francis X. Pisano.
“Originally specializing in taxation, the firm has expanded its areas of service to encompass all facets of accounting including compilation, reviews and audits; tax planning, research, compliance and representation before the US Tax Court, IRS and state and local taxing authorities with respect to both examination and collection matters; consulting, including estate and financial planning, business valuations and acquisitions, computer application and employee benefits,” the site says.
State records show Francis Pisano as the owner of the Cessna that experienced engine problems shortly after takeoff Friday morning, forcing Pisano to try to return to the airport but crashing instead on the freeway.
One of the plane’s engines lost power, so Pisano attempted to pilot it back to the airport westbound over the freeway, but the aircraft lost altitude and its tail clipped a center divider wall, according to the CHP.
The Cessna continued westbound before colliding with off-duty city of Avalon firefighter John Meffert’s 2005 Mitsubishi. In the southbound lanes, the plane also collided with a 2008 Toyota with Uber driver Blackstone Hamilton, 51, behind the wheel.
Ji-Yong Dong, 23, of Ontario, crashed a 2006 Toyota into the plane’s debris in the southbound lanes as did northbound motorist John Triplett, 69, of Folsom, who was driving a 2008 Toyota.
No one suffered injuries other than the Pisanos.
Francis Pisano radioed that he had lost one of his engines just after takeoff and then made a frantic mayday call to air traffic controllers seconds before the plane came down on the freeway north of the MacArthur Boulevard exit.
“We got a mayday! We got a mayday! … I can’t make it back to the airport,” he could be heard saying.
— City News Service contributed to this report.