The Region : Film, TV Figures Among Air Fatalities

A former soap opera actor and a film photographer were among seven people killed in weekend air crashes in Van Nuys, friends and officials said. John Gibson, 37, who appeared on CBS’s “The Young and the Restless,” ABC’s “One Life to Live” and “General Hospital,” was flying solo when his light plane crashed Saturday afternoon near Van Nuys Airport, said friend Noel Blanc, son of cartoon voice Mel Blanc. But the coroner’s office said identification awaits comparison of dental charts. Two hours after that crash, a twin-engine plane went down in a field near the same airport, killing six, including Donald Stern, 55, and Dr. Stanley Daniels, 56. Stern’s box-office credits include director of photography on the film “Creature.” Daniels, a Federal Aviation Administration medical examiner, certified pilots as fit to fly. The coroner’s office said Donald Swanger, 39, of Chatsworth; daughter Nicole, 14, and Stern’s cousin, Bertran Stern, 47, of Mountain View, also were killed. The name of the sixth victim has not been released.