California airfield plane crash: one person was killed and another injured.
A pilot died Monday in the crash of a small plane at a Southern California airfield where one person was killed and another injured when an aircraft went down the day before.
The latest crash at Brackett Field Airport occurred around 11:50 a.m., the La Verne Police Department said in a statement. “The sole occupant was pronounced deceased at the scene,” it said.
The aircraft was identified as a single-engine Bonanza V35 built in 1966.
Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Elizabeth Cory said the plane crashed while approaching the airport.
The investigations will be handled by the National Transportation Safety Board and the FAA, she said.
NTSB officials later said the plane may have clipped a tree and that the crash was unrelated to a Sunday accident, where a Cessna 177RG crashed among plants in a nursery adjacent to the airport shortly before 6 p.m. One of its two occupants died at the scene, and the other was taken to a hospital in serious condition.
Sunday’s crash happened quickly after the pilot reported engine trouble, the Los Angeles Times said. “I need to do a 180. I’m having an engine problem,” he reported to the control tower.
Brackett Field Airport is about 30 miles (48 kilometers) east of Los Angeles.
