Last Updated on January 16, 2023 by CCAR Staff
RIVERSIDE – Authorities were searching for clues today into what caused a small plane to crash into a Riverside neighborhood, killing the pilot, but injuring no one on the ground.
The plane went down and caught fire just after 5 p.m. Sunday in the yard of a home near the intersection of Adams Street and Arlington Avenue, about one-half mile east of Riverside Municipal Airport, said Ian Gregor of the Federal Aviation Administration.
The pilot was the only person in the single-engine Beechcraft BE35and he reported a loss of power before the plane crashed, Gregor said.
He suffered fatal injuries and was pronounced dead at the scene, Riverside Fire Department Capt. Tim Odebralski said. His body remained inside the wreckage after dark and his identity had not been released.
The plane’s flight had not originated at Riverside Municipal Airport, Odebralski said.
The plane took out power lines, knocking out electricity to hundreds in the residential neighborhood, but by 8 p.m. most had their service restored by Riverside Public Utilities crews that quickly responded to the scene, Odebralski said.
It was not immediately clear where the pilot was headed when the crash happened, the captain said.
The pilot radioed that he didn’t think he was going to make it to the airport and may have tried to put the plane down on Adams Street, which is four- lanes wide and might have appeared from the air as a suitable place for an emergency landing, Odebralski said.
