Crews find wreckage of medical plane in California; 2 dead

Published 1:30 am Friday, July 29, 2016

Associated Press

ARCATA, Calif. — Authorities say searchers have found the wreckage of a small medical transport plane in remote Northern California and that at least two people are dead.

A pilot was taking a flight nurse, a transport medic and a patient from Crescent City, near the Oregon border, to Oakland. The Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office didn’t immediately release information about the fates of the other two people aboard.

Rescue teams found the crash site Friday on land owned by a private timber company in Humboldt County, about 280 miles north of San Francisco.

Officials say the pilot reported smoke filling the cockpit and declared an emergency around 1 a.m.

The National Transportation and Safety Board has been notified.

Officials said the pilot reported smoke filling the cockpit and declared an emergency early Friday.

The Federal Aviation Administration said the pilot planned to return to Crescent City before vanishing from radar near an airport on the far northern coast.