Plane Crash Probe Could Take Months
Officials from the National Transportation Safety Board said it could take months before investigators determine what caused a small-engine airplane to crash into the hills north of Ventura, killing two teenagers over the weekend.
Investigators spent Monday removing the wreckage of the Cessna 152, which struck a hill half a mile north of Emma Wood State Beach late Friday night.
Huntington Beach residents Erik Marshall Lind and Tyson Michael Stearns, both 18, died at the scene, authorities said. The aircraft, piloted by Lind, left the Santa Barbara Airport about 10:45 p.m. Friday. The plane’s destination was unknown, because Lind did not file a flight plan, authorities said.
NTSB spokesman Paul Schlamm said investigators picked up the wreckage in hopes of finding some clue to what made the plane go down.
“They want to get a closer look at it,” Schlamm said. “They’ll do a complete investigation, looking at the wreckage for any problems, looking at the engine to make sure it was working, and they’ll look at possible pilot errors, the pilot’s background, and weather conditions. All that is going to take time to decide what exactly happened.”
Schlamm said the safety board investigates about 2,000 small-plane crashes annually.
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