Wreckage of Downed Plane Studied; Two Dead Aviators Are Identified

Hampered by bad weather and rugged canyon terrain, crews began the daunting task Thursday of examining and removing the wreckage of a Marine Corps plane that crashed Wednesday night, killing both men aboard.

Dense fog and drizzle cloaked the remote, wooded area where a two-seat, T-34C Beechcraft turbo-prop plane crashed after taking off from El Toro Marine Corps Air Station about 5 p.m., officials said.

The two Navy aviators killed in the crash were Lt. Michael Edward Moffat Jr., 25, a San Diego native, and Lt. John Francis Bush, 32, a Pennsylvania native, according to an El Toro public affairs spokeswoman.

The two pilots were en route to El Centro Naval Air Station in Imperial County to evaluate a carrier landing training program held at that base before their F-18 fighter squadron participated in it, Maj. Margaret Kuhn said.

The flight was supposed to take between 30 and 45 minutes, but the El Centro tower contacted its El Toro counterpart about 2 1/2 hours after takeoff to say the small, single-engine plane had not arrived, Kuhn said.