Local News in Brief : Sunset Beach : 2nd Midair Crash Pilot Tentatively Identified

George Harry Obinger, 58, a Sunset Beach man engaged to be married, was tentatively identified Monday as one of the two pilots killed in Saturday’s midair collision of two small planes over the Chino Hills.

San Bernardino County Deputy Coroner Tom Dewhirst said Monday that the pilot, believed to have been Obinger, was burned beyond recognition in the crash and that authorities were to announce a positive identification today based on dental records.

The cause of the mid-afternoon collision between Obinger’s twin-engine Piper Comanche and a single-engine Beechcraft Bonanza piloted by Alfred Herndon, 70, of Costa Mesa remained under investigation, authorities said Monday.

Both pilots were flying under visual flight rules at the time and neither carried passengers, authorities said.

Obinger was thought to have been returning from San Bernardino County to Fullerton Municipal Airport where he had based his plane since September, airport and sheriff’s officials said. Herndon was approaching the Chino Airport to land when the collision occurred.

Obinger, who worked in the computer industry, had been engaged for more than a year and planned to marry soon, said Gibron Doan, a family friend.

“He loved to fly,” she said. “He flew almost every weekend. He was a very good pilot. I don’t know how this could have happened.”

Obinger frequently volunteered to fly medical supplies to Mexico, Doan said.