2 killed in crash of small plane
Emergency beacon emitted by aircraft
Two people were found dead Friday after a small plane crashed in the Marin Headlands, authorities said.
The plane emitted an emergency beacon about 2:15 p.m., the National Park Service said. The crash happened about 2:40 p.m., according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
The crash site is on a ridge away from roads and trails north of Conzelman Road in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. Authorities said the area is covered in fog.
Officials did not release the names of the plane occupants until family members could be notified.
The Federal Aviation Administration said the
plane is a single-engine Vans RV-10. The FAA and National Transportation Safety Board will investigate the crash.
A preliminary report is expected to be completed in about two weeks, while the full report could take more than a year, according to an NTSB spokesperson.
The incident is the third deadly plane crash in Marin County in less than a decade.
On Sept. 7, 2017, a Cessna 172N crashed in the Point Reyes National Seashore near Bolinas, according to FAA data. The pilot was on a trip from the Santa Ynez Airport to the Charles M. Schulz-Sonoma County Airport.
The coroner's office identified the pilot as John Rowland Wilson, 58, of Houston, Texas.
Federal investigators concluded the probable cause of the crash was “the non-instrument rated private pilot's improper decision to embark on a flight and continue to fly into forecasted instrument meteorological conditions and mountain obscuration while conducting a visual flight rules flight.”
On Aug. 18, 2014, a Beechcraft V35B Bonanza lost power and crashed near Novato.
Robert John Madge, 51, of Redwood City was heading from Brookings, Oregon, to San Carlos Airport and attempted an emergency landing at Marin County Airport at Gnoss Field.
The National Transportation Safety Board attributed the crash to “the instrument-rated pilot's decision to conduct a visual approach to the airport in night, instrument meteorological conditions, which resulted in controlled flight into terrain.”
“Contributing to the accident was the pilot's loss of situational awareness, the controller's failure to provide clear and concise instructions to the pilot following his declaration of an emergency, and the controller's failure to provide adequate information to the pilot regarding the airplane's proximity to terrain,” the investigative report said.