4 Orange County Men Die in Plane Crash

Four Orange County businessmen returning from a Kiwanis Club meeting were killed Thursday morning when their single-engine plane crashed into the California side of the Colorado River about 30 miles north of Lake Havasu City, Ariz.

Herbert Folsom, a Buena Park dentist who watched his friends take off and then crash just a few minutes later, identified the dead as pilot Rick Fosnight of Newport Beach; Marcel LaFont, 86, a retired optometrist from Buena Park; Gerald Laub, in his early 50s, a semi-retired businessman who lived in Big Bear and owned several bars in Buena Park and northern Orange County, and Joe Maertz, 68, of Buena Park, who owned a local locksmith shop.

“There’s just such an emptiness to see the plane go down like that and not be able to pull it up,” Folsom said.

All four had been past Kiwanis officers and active in community projects and civic activities as part of the club, fellow members said. They were returning from a Kiwanis meeting in Parker, Ariz., on the California border.