Man who built plane that crashed off California coast recalls selling to enthusiast young pilot

LOS ANGELES — A small airplane that crashed into the ocean off the California coast on Sunday was constructed piece by piece over nearly a decade, one of tens of thousands of home-built aircraft that are part of a high-flying hobby taking off across the country. Cozy aircraft have the same safety record as commercially built planes of similar size, said aeronautical engineer Marc Zeitlin, who consults with the National Transportation Safety Board on crash investigations involving Cozy aircraft, including this one. The administration designates any non-commercial, recreational aircraft as “experimental.” Those can include planes built from kits with some prefabricated parts or from plans in which the builder buys or manufactures and assembles all the parts. “Very fun to fly.” Ostroth said he bought the plans for his Cozy for about $500 and started putting it together in a friend’s basement in Michigan. He called it “a wonderful little plane.” Sunday’s crash was reported around 7 p.m. by a 911 caller who said the plane was in obvious distress and appeared to go down toward the water near Ross’ Cove, according to the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office.