7 Killed in 2 Crashes of Light Planes in Forest

Seven people were found dead Monday in the wreckage of two private planes that went down in separate crashes about 30 miles apart in the sprawling Angeles National Forest, authorities said. None of the victims was immediately identified.

In one crash, rescue units from the Los Angeles County Fire Department pulled five members of a family, four adults and a young boy, from a Piper Cherokee that crashed north of Castaic, about two miles east of Interstate 5 near Cherry Canyon, deputies said.

The second crash claimed the lives of two men who were found in the wreckage of a Cessna at the base of Tujunga Mountain, near Gold Creek Road, deputies said.

Rescuers had to battle rough terrain to reach the victims. Both crashes are under investigation, and neither plane apparently filed a flight plan, said investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board.

County fire officials in Castaic said the Piper Cherokee was first spotted on a ridge Monday morning by a motorist who recognized it as a fallen plane. Sheriff’s rescue units, unable to reach the site from the nearby Old Ridge Route Road, were flown in by helicopter shortly after 6 a.m.

In the crash of the Cessna, the Civil Air Patrol picked up an emergency signal at about 9 p.m. Sunday, indicating that a plane had gone down near Tujunga Mountain. Dense fog and rugged terrain prevented sheriff’s rescue units from reaching the site until 5:40 a.m., when they found the two victims, deputies said.