2 Navy Fliers Die as Plane Leased by Base Crashes in Angeles National Forest

A plane leased by a Navy base on the Ventura County coast crashed Wednesday near Lake Hughes in Angeles National Forest, killing two Navy fliers.

The pilot and a lone passenger were not identified pending notification of relatives, said officials at the Point Mugu Naval Air Weapons Station.

Just before the 8:50 a.m. crash, the pilot, who was en route to the China Lake Naval Weapons Center about 70 miles northeast of Bakersfield, radioed air traffic controllers in Palmdale that his engine had failed, said a spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration.

“The controllers were working with him to get him to an airport,” she said. But the pilot issued a Mayday alert, and controllers then lost radio contact, she said.

The plane crashed at an elevation of 4,400 feet in remote mountainous terrain two miles south of Lake Hughes, and Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies, fire crews and Navy rescuers went to the scene.

The crash was the third involving the Point Mugu base since 1988, a base official said. The last occurred in June, 1990, when an A-7 Corsair went down near Gibraltar Reservoir in Santa Barbara County. The two crew members suffered minor injuries.

The airplane in Wednesday’s crash was owned by Channel Islands Aviation, based at Camarillo Airport, which had leased it to the Navy.

Tom Driscoll, one of the company owners, said the 1979 Cessna 210 had returned to Camarillo Airport on Tuesday night after a flight to Monterey. The pilot in Wednesday’s crash had flown the plane previously.

“We’re still in the dark,” Driscoll said.

The dead pilot and passenger were on a routine flight to China Lake, said Robert Hubbart of the Point Mugu station.

He said they used a rented plane because the station’s nine-passenger twin-propeller airplane normally used to transport personnel was being worked on.

Last month, the Navy began consolidating operations at Point Mugu from three other naval weapons test labs--China Lake, and Albuquerque and White Sands, N. M. The move is intended to save $115 million over three years.

Driscoll said the consolidation increased the number of rental planes the Navy needs. However, it was unclear whether the flight Wednesday was related to the consolidation.

The Navy will investigate the cause of the crash rather than the National Transportation Safety Board because it was a naval flight, said Don Llorente, an NTSB investigator.