Highway Toll Reaches 5; Copter Crash Kills Pilot : Accidents: The aircraft goes down in hills near Simi. The bodies of a Thousand Oaks man and a passenger are found in plane debris in Arizona.

Five people have died on Ventura County roads so far this Thanksgiving holiday, and a pilot of a small helicopter was killed Friday when his sputtering aircraft crashed and burned in the hills near Simi Valley, police and fire officials said.

Authorities also found the body of a Thousand Oaks hotel executive and his passenger Friday in the charred wreckage of his single-engine airplane in the mountains near Kingman, Ariz. William Crimmins, 57, regional vice president of Motel 6, had been missing since Monday.

Friday afternoon, an unidentified woman was killed in a head-on collision on California 118 near Saticoy after she spun out of control trying to pass on the right shoulder. The 18-year-old woman, a Simi Valley resident, died in her crushed car.

Maria and Mike Alamillo of Oxnard suffered major injuries in the accident, Fire Department officials said. They were in stable condition at St. John’s Regional Medical Center in Oxnard on Friday evening, a nursing supervisor said. Their three children, a nephew and niece were in stable condition at Pleasant Valley Hospital in Camarillo, a nursing supervisor there said.

The California Highway Patrol released no details of the accident, but witness Rick Chaidez said the woman lost control of her car after pulling off into the gravel to pass on the right. Her car then lunged across the center lane, hitting the Alamillos’ Dodge van. “It was the most unbelievable sound I’ve ever heard in my life,” Chaidez said.

Friday morning, a one-car accident on the Pacific Coast Highway killed a passenger in a car driven by Gerald K. Smith, 18, of Sepulveda. Authorities would not identify the victim before relatives are notified.

CHP officers said Smith was driving north at an excessive speed near Point Mugu when he lost control of the car, which flipped four times.

Smith and other passengers were injured, Officer David Wigton said. “The passenger who died in the accident was wearing a seat belt but had been forced partially out of the car when it rolled, and he hit his head,” Wigton said.

The Ventura County coroner’s office has identified two other men who died in traffic accidents Wednesday and Thursday. Ronald Brickman, 49, of Oxnard died Wednesday evening when his car ran off Victoria Avenue north of Gonzales Road and flipped several times before hitting a parked vehicle, authorities said.

Joshua Flug, 18, of Santa Paula died Thursday afternoon when his motorcycle collided head-on with a car on California 33 north of Ojai. Flug, a student at UC Santa Barbara, was driving south through a tunnel near Wheeler Springs when he crossed over the center line and hit the car, police said.

Coroner’s officials Friday declined to identify a bicyclist who was hit by a car and killed Wednesday evening on Pacific Coast Highway as he traveled north in the southbound lanes.

On Friday, an unidentified pilot crashed in a helicopter about 4:15 p.m. on the Big Sky Movie Ranch at the north end of Erringer Road near Simi Valley, county Fire Department officials said.

Ventura County Fire Capt. Jim Arledge said officials have not determined the cause of the crash, but two witnesses said they heard the helicopter’s engine sputter before it went down.

Kent Littlefield, 22, said he and a friend heard the “rough running engine” of the copter, which was owned by Orbic Helicopters Inc. of Van Nuys. “Then we heard, not a crash, but like a crunch,” he said. “About 30 seconds later we saw a plume of black smoke.”

Debra Early, manager of Big Sky Movie Ranch, said she did not know why the helicopter was flying over the ranch. The ranch’s 9,400 acres of hills and canyons have been used extensively by Hollywood production crews for such television shows as “The Little House on the Prairie” and “Rawhide.”

“This is one of our biggest fears,” Early said. “Helicopters hover over all of the time.”

Ventura County Sheriff’s Department and the Federal Aviation Administration are investigating the crash, which scattered wreckage over a 100-foot area.

In the mountains near Kingman, Ariz., the Arizona Civil Air Patrol discovered the body of Thousand Oaks resident William Crimmins and his passenger, Lavonne DeSchpper of Mitchell, S.D., in the wreckage of Crimmins’ airplane.

Crimmins, 57, and DeSchpper were journeying from South Dakota to Thermal, Calif., where DeSchpper was to spend Thanksgiving with friends. They were last seen Monday evening leaving an airport at Grand Junction, Colo.

A search by the California and Arizona Civil Air Patrols began Tuesday and ended at 1:30 p.m. Friday when one of the crews spotted the wreckage from the air.

Crimmins and DeSchpper died instantly in the mountainside crash, said Joyce Kienitz, public affairs officer for the Arizona Civil Air Patrol.

Kienitz said it is unclear what might have caused the crash but that Crimmins was “a very safety-conscious pilot who didn’t seem the type to travel in bad weather.”

The crash came as a shock to Crimmins’ family. “He’s been flying for 25 years,” said Ronald Crimmins, a brother who lives in Mesa, Ariz. “It was a passion of his.”

The National Transportation Safety Board will investigate the crash.

Contributing to this story were Times staff writers Joanna M. Miller and Tina Daunt and writers Christopher Pummer, Karen McKean and Jack Searles.