At approximately 1 a.m. today, the pilot of a twin-engine Piper PA31 radioed that he had smoke in the cockpit of his plane.
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The plane was found about 10 a.m. Friday on private timber company land in the Cranell area of Humboldt County located north of McKinleyville. It wasn’t immediately clear what happened to the other two aboard.
The plane was part of Cal-Ore Life Flight, which transports patients throughout Northern California and Oregon.
A Northern California family of four is dead after a small plane crashed and burned as it tried to land on a runway Wednesday.
The plane was carrying a pilot, patient, transport medic, and flight nurse.
FAA spokesman Ian Gregor said the plane planned to fly about 360 miles from Crescent City, near the OR border, to Oakland.
FAA spokesman Ian Gregor says the plane planned to fly about 360 miles from Crescent City, near the OR border, to Oakland.
Officials say the pilot reported smoke filling the cockpit and declared an emergency early Friday.
Radar contact was lost with the plane about five miles northeast of the Arcata Airport, according to information from Wayne Hanson of the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office. The pilot planned to return to Crescent City before vanishing from radar 5 miles north of the Arcata-Eureka Airport on the far northern coast, FAA spokesman Ian Gregor said.
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“All pilots come to us with vast amount of experience, the average being well over 3,000 miles of air carrier flying time”, he said in a statement. “Any comment about the cause or other details of the incident would be unfounded speculation”, said Don Wharton, business director for REACH.
