Plane crash in Napa vineyard kills 3

The aircraft wreck is the second this week in Northern California. A small plane crash in Monterey left two dead on Tuesday after it crashed into an unoccupied residence.

Three people died after a small plane crashed into a vineyard near the Angwin Airport in Napa County.

At 8:44 a.m. Friday, crews were dispatched to the crash, which started a small fire at Las Posadas Road. The fire has since been put out.

The plane, a singleengine Beechcraft Bonanza, crashed into the lower block of the Abreu Vineyard, owned by

David Abreu, a local viticulturist, his son Matteo confirmed. Angwin is a small town 45 minutes north of Napa.

Abreu and his son were out of town at the time of the accident but said that they had talked with their vineyard crews and that they were safe.

The Napa County Sheriff ’s Office confirmed that three individuals — the pilot and two passengers — died at the scene. The agency did not have any more information on the individuals’ identities.

Haley Wesley, public information officer for Pacific Union College, which owns the airport, said that none of the college’s employees or aircraft were involved in the crash.

The Beechcraft Bonanza, which was introduced in 1947, has earned the nickname “The Doctor Killer” because of its propensity for highprofile crashes, many of them involving doctors, according to Aviation News.

There were so many accidents among Beechcraft Bonanza pilots that, in 1983, the American Bonanza Society created the Beechcraft Proficiency Program in part to help Beechcraft owners learn to navigate their airplanes more safely.

The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the incident.

The aircraft wreck is the

second this week in Northern California. A small plane crash in Monterey left two dead on Tuesday after it crashed into an unoccupied residence.

The pilot, 74yearold Mary Ellen Carlin of Pacific Grove, was an experienced flight instructor who perished in the crash along with her passenger, 61yearold Alice Diane Emig.

Shortly after taking off from the Monterey regional airport, the plane crashed straight into a home in the Monterra Ranch neighborhood.