Plane Allegedly Carrying Pot Crashes, Killing Sylmar Pilot

A rookie pilot from Sylmar was killed when his single-engine plane, carrying 108 pounds of marijuana, struck a power line and crashed in an empty field near a small town in southern Utah, authorities said Thursday.

Joshua Wayne Teegarden, 21, a graduate of Kennedy High School in Granada Hills, was killed in the Tuesday evening accident near Monticello, a town of about 2,000 residents in the southeast corner of Utah.

A passenger aboard the Cessna 172, Charles Clinton Kennan, 24, of Piedmont, Calif., suffered minor injuries and was being held on suspicion of possessing a controlled substance with intent to sell, said Officer Mike Harris of the San Juan County Sheriff’s Department.

Teegarden’s father, Wayne, said he knew nothing about the marijuana. He said his son told him that he was transporting dishes to a business in Utah.

“I believe he was taking them from one business to another,” Teegarden said. “He didn’t confide in us too much.”

Teegarden said his son got his pilot’s license just 18 days ago, and that he wanted to become an airline pilot. The younger Teegarden, who lived with his parents in Sylmar, was attending aviation school and planning to enter the Navy next year, his father said.

Teegarden said his son rented the Cessna 172, which he flew out of Whiteman Airport in Pacoima. Harris said sheriff’s investigators were trying to find out why the plane was in Utah and flying at such a low altitude.

He said the Federal Aviation Administration also was investigating the crash.