On the night of March 26, 2000, a KTTV news helicopter "Sky Fox 2", a secondary helicopter that was previously owned by KTLA, crashed at Van Nuys airport after experiencing problems while covering the Academy Awards.
A Cessna 525 Citation CJ1 twin-engine jet departing for Long Beach Airport crashed north of the airport on January 12, 2007, killing two people on board. One was reported to be the owner of the company which operated the aircraft.
On November 25, 2008, a Cessna 310 carrying 2 people experienced landing gear problems. After burning off fuel, it was able to land on the runway without incident, although its front gear collapsed upon landing.
On January 9, 2015, a Lancair aircraft crashed after takeoff just south of the airport at the intersection of Vanowen Street and Hayvenhurst Avenue. The pilot, an experienced flight instructor and Jet Propulsion Laboratory robotics engineer, was killed.
General Aviation
FBOs:
:Signature Flight Support
:Clay Lacy Aviation
:Castle and Cooke Aviation
:Jet Aviation
Airport businesses
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Filming location
Van Nuys Airport has been the location of many film, television, and music video shoots.
Film
Parts of the climatic scene of the 1942 film Casablanca were filmed at Van Nuys Airport, at the time known as Metropolitan Airport.
The dramatic ending of the 1950 film noirArmored Car Robbery takes place at what was then Los Angeles Metropolitan Airport. Antagonist William Talman and his burlesque queen girlfriend Adele Jergens are attempting to escape by chartered airplane, and are cornered by Detective Charles McGraw. Talman runs, and is killed on the runway by a landing airplane.
In 2005, One Six Right, a film documenting the history of Van Nuys Airport was released. It was named after the most favored runway at the airport.
Television
Many television shows have filmed at the airport, including an episode of the TV showAlias, and several episodes of Season 5 of 24.
A major part of the science fiction classicSilent Running was filmed at the Van Nuys Airport in March 1971. The Domes from the spacecraft that contained the last surviving forests were filmed there. The forest environments were originally intended to be filmed in the Mitchell Park Domes in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, but the production budget forced the sequences to be shot in a newly completed aircraft hangar in Van Nuys.
The 1980s action-espionage series Airwolf used the Van Nuys Airport hangars regularly as the site of "Santini Air", the charter air service company owned and operated by Ernest Borgnine's character in the series.
In the last episode of Season 1 of the HBO series Entourage, the final scene takes place at Van Nuys Airport, where Vincent Chase and company take off for New York City. It was also used in the fourth season when Kanye West offers the group a plane ride on a Marquis Jet to Cannes. In Season 5 episode 7, Chase and Ari Gold run into each other in a hangar as each are about to depart on separate flights to Geneva, Switzerland and Hawaii, respectively. The last episode of season 6, episode 12, is used as a location where Chase and his crew run into Matt Damon on the way to Italy for a film shoot.
Music video
Britney Spears's music video for "Stronger"
Metallica's music video for "The Memory Remains"
Blink-182's music video for "All The Small Things"
Kiss's music video for "God Gave Rock and Roll To You 2"