Costa Mesa Man Identified as One of Pilots Killed in Air Crash

Authorities investigating the midair collision of two small planes over the Chino Hills identified one of the dead pilots Sunday as a Costa Mesa man and said the second pilot, still unidentified, apparently was returning to Fullerton Municipal Airport.

Neither aircraft carried passengers, authorities said.

Alfred Herndon, 70, a retired Orange County real estate salesman, was piloting a single-engine Beechcraft Bonanza out of Chino Airport when it collided with a twin-engine Piper Comanche about 3 p.m. Saturday, authorities said.

The second pilot, who was apparently returning to Fullerton from Chino, was not positively identified pending a check of dental records today, according to John McFarland, a San Bernardino County deputy coroner.

Both aircraft were flying under visual flight rules, a Federal Aviation Administration spokesman said.

Investigators at the scene from the National Transportation and Safety Board and the FAA have yet to determine what caused the planes to collide, authorities said. Parts and wreckage of both aircraft, which fell to earth about a quarter-mile apart, were to be removed for study by federal investigators this morning from rugged canyons in the hills near the junction of San Bernardino, Orange and Riverside County boundaries.

“Just the two pilots were killed,” said Lt. Mike Stodelle of the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department. “And there was just one pilot in each aircraft.”

Stodelle said the pilot of the twin-engine plane apparently left Fullerton on Saturday morning for Chino and was on a return trip when the crash occurred. The Comanche burned on impact, making positive identification of the pilot difficult.

Herndon’s Beechcraft did not burn, Stodelle said.

Herndon, who left Chino at 2:26 p.m. for a short flight, radioed the airport tower at 2:48 p.m. that he was returning, Stodelle said. The tower could not reach him on the radio three minutes later to report a runway change. “That’s when we believe he went down,” Stodelle said.

Herndon had flown for 25 years, his widow, Margaret, said Sunday. “He loved life and loved that plane,” she said. “I hated it.”

Her husband had driven to Chino on Saturday from their Costa Mesa home to take the airplane for a “quick spin,” she said. “He had a zest for life and lived it to the fullest,” she said. “I’m sorry he’s gone.”