Local News in Brief : Man, Woman Found Dead in Plane Wreck
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Aman and woman found dead Wednesday in the wreckage of a small plane on a mountainside in Los Padres National Forest are believed to be a Malibu Lake couple missing since taking off from Van Nuys Airport on Saturday, Civil Air Patrol officials said.
Gordon Barnett, mission-control director of the Civil Air Patrol, said the victims of the crash were pilot John Barnard, 62, and his wife, Louise, 68. Ventura County sheriff’s officers were awaiting confirmation of the victims’ identities by the coroner’s office, but said the wreckage was identified as the Grumman American the Barnards were flying.
Air patrol flyers spotted the partly snow-covered plane wreckage at 1 p.m., about 6 miles up the rugged northwest slope of Frazier Mountain. The searchers were tracking a signal from an emergency transmitter on the plane.
Barnett said the air search began Tuesday after relatives of the Barnards reported them missing since leaving Van Nuys Airport at 12:30 p.m. Saturday for a flight to a spot near Fresno.
Barnett said Barnard was a former Marine pilot with more than 5,000 hours of flying time.
The crash is being investigated by the Sheriff’s Department and the Federal Aviation Administration, authorities said.
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