Five dead in Calif. small plane crash
Five people died Saturday when a single-engine plane crashed into an almond orchard in central California, local and federal authorities said Sunday.
The Piper PA32 was en route from San Jose, Calif., to Henderson, Nev., on Saturday afternoon when it went down about 10 miles south of Bakersfield, Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) spokesman Ian Gregor said.
The victims were not immediately identified late Sunday, but they were believed to be from the Bay area, The Bakersfield Californian reported.
FAA and National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigators were at the crash scene, said Kern County Sheriff's Sgt. Mark King. He said the debris field stretched about a quarter of a mile.
It wasn't immediately clear whether weather was a contributing factor, but light rain and mist were observed nearby at the time of the crash, said Cindy Bean of the National Weather Service in Hanford, Calif.
Air traffic controllers lost contact with the plane around 4 p.m. PT Saturday, Gregor said. The plane sent a mayday call and searchers spotted the wreckage southwest of Bakersfield about three hours after receiving an FAA alert about a missing plane.
The crash was only about 30 miles from the site of a medical helicopter crash that killed four people in heavy rain and fog 10 days earlier.
Contributing: The Associated Press