Local News in Brief : Plane Crash Survivor in Serious Condition

The passenger in a single-engine aircraft that crashed in Ventura County Sunday night, killing the pilot, was reported in serious condition Monday at Los Robles Regional Medical Center in Thousand Oaks.

Pat Perry, 34, of Woodland Hills was being treated for internal injuries, a hospital spokeswoman said.

Pilot Rick Wallman, 32, of Thousand Oaks died at the medical center Sunday night.

Officials of the National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration on Monday began investigating the crash of the light plane by inspecting wreckage spread across a canyon hillside near Moorpark, authorities said.

Ventura County sheriff’s deputies were first alerted to the downed plane shortly before 7 p.m. Sunday and spotted the wreckage one hour later in a remote canyon area about 2 miles north of Moorpark College, Lt. Joe Harwell said.

Sheriff’s deputies involved in the rescue said the plane twice skipped off a hillside before coming to rest near the bottom of a canyon, Harwell said.

The plane’s throttle was pulled all the way back, Harwell said, suggesting that the pilot was trying to gain altitude before the crash.

Wallman, who apparently was on a pleasure trip, was a paramedic for the Los Angeles City Fire Department, fire officials said.