Plane Identified in East County Crash
Last updated 5/17/2018 at 9:04am
A small plane that was set to arrive at Gillespie Field Thursday crashed, killing three people aboard, officials confirmed May 15.
A twin-engine Beechcraft Duchess did not land at the El Cajon airport as scheduled, a spokesperson for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Pacific Division.
That same night, a plane crash on Volcan Mountain sparked a 12-acre brush fire in the Ranchita area. Deputies described the area as Arkansas Canyon. It's located east of Warner Springs and west of Borrego Springs.
On Tuesday, officials confirmed the crashed plane was the missing Beechcraft Duchess.
Three bodies were removed Monday from the wreckage, four days since the crash was first reported.
Someone saw the plane crashing and called 911 at around 8:30 p.m. Thursday. Due to the remote location of the crash, it wasn't found until Friday.
Search teams could not reach the wreckage until Sunday when they confirmed three people were dead at the crash site.
