Sin Palabras

Wow, en mi post de ayer mencione algo de que un avion se habia caido.
Hoy despues de una noche larga pero divertida, me levanto abro mi periodico y veo la siguiente noticia:

Article Published: Wednesday, December 24, 2003 - 6:20:23 PM PST

Plane from L.B. crashes, 5 die
By Neda Raouf
Staff writer

Five people were killed Christmas Eve when a private, twin-engine plane that departed from Long Beach crashed into a mountain on Santa Catalina Island, authorities said.

The plane - a seven-seater Piper Seneca that left the Long Beach Airport at 9:54 a.m. - crashed at approximately 10:20 a.m., just about 1.5 miles southwest of Catalina's Airport in the Sky, said Donn Walker, spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration.

The five people aboard were dead at the scene, said Capt. Mark Savage of the Los Angeles County Fire Department.

No information was released about the victims.

Officials do not know exactly why the plane crashed, and the National Transportation Safety Board will be investigating, Walker said.

Visibility was not completely clear at the time of the attempted landing, with light rain, misting and some cloud cover as low as 100 feet as the pilot was trying to land, Walker said.

As he approached the runway, the pilot apparently decided it was too dangerous to land and maneuvered to miss the approach. He was in the process of coming back around to try to land a second time when the plane crashed, Walker said.

Authorities would not speculate about reasons for the crash, saying it was unclear if the light rain and cloud cover were a factor because, they said, planes land in poor weather all the time.

The Los Angeles County Fire Department was alerted at about 10:47 a.m. to reports of a missing plane, and a helicopter responded from the mainland to help in the search, Savage said.

Also, lifeguards and bay watch boats responded, with help from the U.S. Coast Guard. The wreckage was located at 1:13 p.m. on Orizaba Mountain, he said.

Coast Guard Petty Officer Dave Hardesty said the Catalina Island Conservancy was also involved in locating the plane.

Ken Ashmore, of Long Beach Airport, said his agency had no information about the passengers.

Catalina's Airport in the Sky is in the center of the island at an elevation of about 1,600 feet.

via www.press-telegram.com