Four Plane Crash Victims Were Returning From Dinner Outing
Four people killed in a weekend plane crash in a mountainous region of Los Padres National Forest were identified Monday as Agoura Hills youths returning from a dinner outing in Santa Barbara.
Douglas Pankratz, 20, Eric Schulz, 20, Julie Hilger, 18, and Kim Allen, 18, left Van Nuys Airport on Saturday, according to West Winds Aviation, which rented the plane to Pankratz.
Pankratz, a 1989 graduate of Agoura High School with about 75 hours of flying experience, and his passengers were returning to Van Nuys when the single-engine Piper Archer slammed into a fog-shrouded hillside above Carpinteria about 8:50 p.m.
Hilger and Allen were seniors at Agoura High School and Schulz graduated with Pankratz from the same school, according to a school official who described the students as “positive and outgoing.”
“This is a tragic loss to the school,” he said.
Officials said the crash probably was caused by a combination of foggy weather and an inexperienced pilot.
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