Passenger in Plane Crash Identified

A Glendale woman was one of two people who died when a single-engine airplane crashed into a juice storage tank just short of the Whiteman Airport runway in Pacoima, authorities said Sunday.

The identity of the pilot in Saturday’s accident, a 66-year-old Glendale man, was being withheld until his family could be notified, a Los Angeles County coroner’s supervisor said.

The passenger was identified as Lois Taylor, 61. She was thrown from the plane on impact and died at the scene, officials said. Firefighters pulled the pilot from the wreckage and took him to Pacifica Hospital of the Valley in Sun Valley, where he died Saturday afternoon.

Officials said a Federal Aviation Administration investigator and one from the National Transportation Safety Board were at the scene Sunday, but they said the cause of the crash had not yet been determined.

The blue, white and gold four-seat Beechcraft Bonanza hovered over a residential neighborhood, then flew head-on into a fruit-juice storage tank near Sutter Avenue and Carl Street shortly before 1:30 p.m. Saturday, authorities said.

Because no fuel was seen near the crash site, firefighters speculated that the plane ran out of fuel.