Bodies of Motel Executive, Passenger Found in Wrecked Plane in Arizona

The body of Thousand Oaks motel executive William Crimmins, described by friends as an excellent pilot, was found Friday along with the body of a woman passenger in the burned wreckage of his single-engine airplane in the mountains near Kingman, Ariz., officials with the Arizona Civil Air Patrol said.

Crimmins, 57, and passenger Lavonne DeSchpper had taken off from South Dakota and were reported missing Monday when they failed to land in Thermal, Calif., where DeSchpper was planning to spend Thanksgiving with friends. They were last seen Monday evening leaving an airport at Grand Junction, Colo.

A search by the Civil Air Patrols of California and Arizona began Tuesday and ended Friday afternoon, when one of the crews saw the wreckage from the air about 8,400 feet up the side of a mountain southeast of Kingman.

Crimmins, a vice president of Motel 6, and DeSchpper died instantly and the plane’s emergency locater transmitter was destroyed on impact, said Joyce Kienitz, public affairs officer for the Arizona Civil Air Patrol.

Kienitz said that 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 National Transportation Safety Board will investigate the crash.