California IN BRIEF : JACKSON : Victims of Plane Crash Identified

The victims of a private plane crash were identified by authorities as two couples from Modesto and an Army sergeant major and his wife from San Francisco. The twin-engine aircraft, on a pleasure trip to Lake Tahoe, crashed into a mountainside in the El Dorado National Forest in the Sierra Nevada after taking off from Modesto Airport, authorities said. The El Dorado County Sheriff’s Department identified the victims as Sgt. Maj. Michael James Conrad, 38, and his wife, Herma, 42, based at the Presidio; Richard Edward Stahl, 47, pilot-owner of the aircraft, his wife, Marlene, and her parents, Arthur Brown, 60, and Rose Marie, 50.