Maybe there was some differnt among your experience and the accident
condition.
At the time of accident,
1. Runway 6 is in use (which is seldomly used,only during Santa Ana
wind days)
2. It was around 9:40 AM Bright sunshine from the south-east.
3. Pilot flew from El Monte (from the north, went south-east bound to
FUL).
3a. He had to go under the LAX glide slope. So he had to keep low.
3b. Due to the wall of mountains (Rose Hills) lies north of the FUL
(sit from east to west), he had to fly the bigger none standard left
base pattern
instead of standard 45 degree entry.

As you can see, it was a straight path between the sun, tower and the
plane. He never got a chance to spot the tower since he flew so low and
sun was so low (not a single cloud that day. I took off minutes after
he departed). Had he alter the altitude, the direction, or the tower
had some strobe light, it won't be such tragic ending.

-cpu

Casey Wilson wrote:
My condolences to the grieving family members and friends
.
I attribute this accident to pilot error. I've flown the
pattern at
Fullerton a few times. I 've never had any trouble locating the
tower on
the way in and I'm not local to the airport. Paraphrasing the AIM,
or
maybe the FARs, don't go where you don't know.....
How many times has the tower been struck by an airplane? This
accident
is sensational because it is being made so.