The State : 6 Killed in Plane Crashes

Weekend crashes of two small planes 100 miles apart cost six lives. Four people were killed when a single-engine Cessna 172 hit a rise between ponds in an area used by duck hunters near Los Banos and came apart, scattering wreckage and bodies over a wide area, Merced County fire officials said. About 100 miles to the south in Kern County, Civil Air Patrol authorities found the wreckage of a Cessna 210 carrying two people in rough terrain about 20 miles west of Gorman. There were no survivors. The Los Banos crash apparently occurred sometime Friday afternoon after the plane took off from Turlock Airport. The airport owner told authorities the four occupants were heading for the Harris Ranch restaurant near Los Banos for dinner. The dead were identified as Garry Collard, 46, the pilot, and his wife Pearl, 45, both of Turlock, and Thomas Sullivan, age unknown, and his wife, Melba, 53, both of Delhi. Names of the dead in the crash near Gorman were unknown.