GORMAN : 4 Family Members Identified as Victims of Air Crash

Four people killed when their light plane crashed in bad weather north of Gorman were identified Tuesday as a San Jose couple, their daughter and grandchild.

The plane’s pilot, Paul Anthony Schmidt, and his wife, Gloria Maria Schmidt, both 48, were among the victims of Sunday’s crash on a rugged mountain side, said Margaret White, a spokeswoman for the county coroner’s office. The couple’s daughter, Heidi Schmidt, 21, of Sunnyvale, and her 2-year-old daughter, Tiannah Hayden, also died, White said.

The single-engine Cessna 172 left Burbank Airport about noon Sunday en route to Reid Hillview Airport in San Jose. Authorities said the plane apparently crashed about an hour later.

The cause of the crash remained undetermined Tuesday, pending the completion of an investigation, said Don Llorente, supervisory air safety investigator for the National Transportation Safety Board.

When the plane crashed, however, satellite pictures showed “inclement weather throughout the whole area,” a National Weather Service official said Monday.

Another airplane flying on a regular route spotted the plane’s wreckage about 4 p.m. Monday, about the time that a Los Angeles County sheriff’s helicopter crew also discovered the wreckage, authorities said.

Dense low clouds forced the sheriff’s helicopter crew to call off a recovery mission Monday, but a crew of sheriff’s rescue workers hiked to the crash scene Tuesday and retrieved the bodies by 2 p.m., Sgt. Richard Lichten said.