Pilot Who Died In West L.A. Plane Crash Was An Attorney Who Flew Planes For Charity

The pilot who died after his plane crashed onto a sidestreet in West Los Angeles yesterday has been identified by a neighbor who knew him as a local attorney, who volunteered to fly planes for charity.

A friend and neighbor told NBC Los Angeles that the pilot who perished in yesterday's fiery plane crash was Sean McMillan of Westchester. He was an attorney at at the Century City-based law firm Greenberg Traurig. Charlie Fredricy said that McMillan was in his 70's and for two decades he had volunteered with a group called Angel Flight.

Fredricy described McMillan as a generous person who would have gone out of his way to make sure no one else was hurt as his plane went down: "I know for a fact Sean would've aimed his airplane at the last moment for an empty street."

Locals who saw the plane before it crashed said that it had been flying extremely low before it crashed into the intersection of Glendon Avenue and Mississippi. The FAA told reporters that the pilot declared an "emergency" for an unknown reason. He was trying to turn his fixed-wing, single-engine Cessa 210 around to land back at the Santa Monica, which was just three miles away.

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Plane Crashes Into West Los Angeles Neighborhood, Killing 1