Wreckage Searched for Clues to Mid-Air Crash

Investigators on Saturday inspected aircraft wreckage scattered widely over the desert near Tehachapi, seeking the cause of an in-flight collision between a U.S. Air Force jet and a single-engine private plane that killed four people.

The dead were identified as Marvin (Andy) Andelin, 51, owner of Pacific Aerographics of Santa Ana, pilot of the private plane; photographer Jim Nenneman, 34, of Santa Ana, an employee of Andelin’s firm; and two officers, Maj. Michael J. Keane, 33, of Mt. Prospect, Ill., pilot of the military aircraft, and 1st Lt. Gregory B. Hoglan, 26, of University City, Mo.

The Air Force plane, a T-38 Talon training jet on a training mission out of Edwards Air Force Base, and the Cessna 206 collided just after 11 a.m. Friday, scattering debris in an area known as Cameron Canyon.

Lt. Eric Schnaible, a spokesman at Edwards, said the Air Force has formed a board of officers to investigate the crash. “They’re taking a look at the wreckage,” Schnaible said Saturday. “That will be part of the investigation.”

The civilian investigation will be headed by Audrey Shutte of the National Transportation Safety Board, according to Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Russell Park.

For four hours after Friday’s crash, the tragedy was doubly difficult for Peggy Andelin of Irvine, wife of one of the victims. She knew only that one of the company’s two planes was involved in the collision. Her husband Marvin Andelin was in one of the planes and her son, Don, was in the other.

“I didn’t know which one it was . . . because both were out,” she said Saturday.

The Andelins had been married for 32 years, she said. Her husband had never had a fear of flying, she said.

“Absolutely none. He’d been flying since he was 16,” she said.

The family-owned firm produces aerial photographs, and Marvin Andelin was on a job when the collision occurred, his wife said.

“That’s the only time they ever flew the airplane,” she said. “They didn’t fly it for pleasure.”

She said the photographer killed with her husband had worked for the firm for about four years.

Nenneman was unmarried and had no children, she said.

She declined to say whether the firm will remain in business.

“There’s nothing customary about this business,” she said. “But I’m all right.”