Last Updated on November 22, 2016 by CCAR Staff
MOUNT BALDY >> The pilot of a single-engine Piper airplane was found dead inside the aircraft, which crashed in the Mount Baldy area early Tuesday morning, officials said.
• Video: Fire official provides update on Mount Baldy plane crash
“Crews have reached crash site. Single occupant with fatal injuries,” said a Twitter post from the San Bernardino County Fire Department.
Fire crews and sheriff’s deputies from San Bernardino and Los Angeles counties worked together to reach the plane, found north of San Antonio Heights.
“We learned from Ontario air ground control the plane was missing around 4:30 a.m. when they lost contact with it,” Upland police Sgt. Mike Rainwater said.
• Photos: Fatal Plane Crash Near Mount Baldy
Authorities learned the plane took off from Upland’s Cable Airport.
“There was an aircraft accident early Tuesday morning near Upland,” said Allen Kenitzer, spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration, in an email. “The airplane, a Piper PA-28, flying from Upland to Riverside, crashed under unknown circumstances shortly after takeoff.”
Upland officers, with help from Claremont police and the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department, searched for the missing plane until the crash scene was located just before 6:30 a.m., authorities said.
The small white plane was on a mountainside with debris strewn for several feet around the crash site.
Rainwater said the area where the plane was found, near Mountain and Euclid avenues, is in the Mount Baldy area, so sheriff’s officials — including Search and Rescue — are handling the investigation.
Rescuers set up a command post on the San Antonio Dam, officials said.
The cause of the crash was not released and is under investigation.
The pilot’s identity hasn’t been released pending next-of-kin notification.
