Five years after a crash-landing prompted Larry Pine to completely restore his 1972 Chinese military trainer, he's back to square one.
A Maserati driven by a 21-year-old Phoenix man crashed through a secured metal hangar door early Saturday at Mesa's Falcon Field where Pine's vintage plane was stored, causing extensive damage to the nose gear, a cowling beneath the engine and one of the wings.
"I was called by police at 3 a.m.," Pine said Tuesday. "I live in Queen Creek. When I got there I wasn't prepared for what I saw. It was pure destruction. The metal door on the hangar was bent like a paper clip. The car went in sideways and then backwards. The police said it was going about 65 mph. I think it had to be in the range of 100 mph. It took the whole wing of my airplane and compressed it. There was a lot of energy there."
Pine said the plane is valued at between $165,000 and $220,000.
"It was a very unique airplane with its combination of gear, modernized cockpit and new engine from Russia," he said.
Pine said the aircraft needs to be examined to see whether the spar, the major structural support for the wing, is bent. "If that's the case, it's a total loss," he said.
The impact crumbled the hangar door and knocked it off its support beams, Pine said.
"The whole hangar area was covered with skid marks," he said. "My wife's collectible bike was under the wing. Everything in the hangar was destroyed."
A police report said the car was traveling too fast for conditions on a taxiway that serves dozens of hangars in a gated area of the city-owned airport, which requires an access card to enter.
Police didn't ticket the driver, identified as Brandon S. Passey, but police spokesman Sgt. Ed Wessing said the incident is still under investigation for possible criminal charges related to damaging property while driving recklessly.
Neither Passey, nor a passenger in the vehicle, Andrew Norman Smith, 22, of Mesa, was injured, police said.
The two-door 2009 Maserati is owned by Gregory B. Crane of Scottsdale, police said.
Crane, 46, told The Arizona Republic that he stores the car at Falcon Field and had given Smith, who is his nephew, an access card to enter the gated area of the airport so he and Passey could drive it.
"They have used it before to go to the car wash and get gas," he said. "I trust them, but unfortunately it's a powerful car. They lost control and crashed."
Airport Director Corinne Nystrom said the city recently beefed up security around the airport to restrict unauthorized access onto the airfield. The secured area, which is gated, includes hangars which are leased by the city.
When airport tenants are issued the access cards they are required to sign a document that states they are responsible for the cards' use, she said.
Crane, who was out of town when the accident occurred, said he didn't know how badly his Maserati was damaged.
"I'm just glad that nobody was injured," said the pilot and businessman who was badly injured about a year ago when his own plane crashed on a San Diego golf course.
The accident killed his wife, Lori, 47, their 8-year-old son, Austin, and critically injured two of their other children.