Plane crash strikes fear in residents nearby

Even after a plane crash on a golf course, advertising banners are still circling around the Coachella Music and Arts Festival Sunday.

Investigators are looking into what caused the mechanical failure that forced the plane pulling a banner over the concert to go down.

While no one was hurt in the crash, people living close by say it’s only a matter of time.

“It looks like a real bad accident about to happen and it needs to be mitigated as soon as possible,” resident Damion Bregdon said.

Bregdon is a former pilot and said he’s seen several close calls.

“Thats just the basic FAA lack of enforcement problem and a pilot error problem. When you’re following too close when another plane that’s not part of the banner towing comes too close to their flight path. There have been some close calls,” Bregdon said.

Bregdon said Golden Voice, the company that puts on Coachella, doesn’t want them here either.

“Mr. Paige said that he actually had gone to the banner carriers and said he would pay them the money but please keep the planes on the ground. Number one, for the protection of his concert goers and number two, being a good neighbor for the protection of the communities around here… And what happened? He got turned down. I mean obviously they’re in the sky right now,” Bregdon said.

But they are very much allowed in the sky.

The FAA controls the air space above Coachella, and these planes are allowed to fly.

But residents are asking city officials to look into the problem.

“Say ‘hey as an elected official there is some validity to preserving and protecting the safety of our residents, that’s when we held up our hand and said that we would do that’,” resident Tom Campagna said.

But until that time, get used to the noise… because these planes aren’t going away.

The FAA, who regulates these issues, has not yet responded for comment.