Cause of plane crash still unknown

Investigators continue to search for the cause of a plane crash Saturday

that claimed the lives of two Huntington Beach teenagers.

“We’re looking for anything that might give us a clue about what

happened,” said Bob Crispin, air safety investigator for the National

Transportation Safety Board.

Shortly after midnight, a Cessna piloted by Erik Marshall Lind, 18,

crashed into a hill north of Ventura, officials said. Lind, along with

his passenger, Tyson Michael Stearns, 18, were heading home after

visiting a high school friend in Santa Barbara, Ventura County Senior

Medical Examiner Zelmira Isaac said. They had stopped earlier at Santa

Ynez to visit Stearns’ grandmother, she said.

The foggy weather may have made flying difficult, Ventura Sheriff’s

Senior Deputy Harold Hanley said.

Lind was a local lifeguard. “He was probably going to be one of the up

and coming young lifeguards,” said Al Fimlaid, who supervised Lind last

summer at Huntington State Beach and Bolsa Chica State Beach.

Spokeswoman Julie Decker of Lucky supermarkets said Stearns, an employee

there, had recently been promoted. “He will be missed by all of his

associates,” she said.

Funeral services for Lind will be held at 3 p.m. today at Christ

Presbyterian Church at 20112 Magnolia Street, Huntington Beach. Stearns

funeral took place Wednesday in Santa Ynez.