Five people were killed when a small plane crashed on California’s Catalina Island late Tuesday night.
The twin-engine Beechcraft 95 crashed almost immediately after taking off from the island’s small airport around 8 p.m., the Federal Aviation Administration said.
The five people on board, all adults, were found dead about a mile west of the airport in rugged terrain, according to the Los Angeles County sheriff’s office. The victims were not publicly identified.
The cause of the crash remains unclear. The same aircraft had arrived on Catalina Island earlier in the day after departing from Santa Monica Airport.
Federal records show the plane that crashed was registered to a person named Ali Safai and previously belonged to a company called Santa Monica Aviation, which was also a flight school.
The company was owned by a man named Ali Safai, but in 2018 he said he was closing the business because Santa Monica city officials were trying to shutter the local airport.
“Between rent increases, restricted hours, landing fees, taking away subleases and now shortening the runway, I’m through fighting these battles with the city,” Safai told the National Business Aviation Association.
Santa Monica’s airport is scheduled to close in 2028.
Catalina Island, officially part of Los Angeles County, sits about 20 miles off the coast and has around 5,500 full-year residents. It is a popular tourist destination for water sports and activities.
The island has one small, centrally located airport with a single 3,000-foot runway. It is known as the Airport in the Sky because of its 1,600-foot elevation.
FAA and National Transportation Safety Board officials will investigate Tuesday night’s wreck.
With News Wire Services
