4 Bodies Found in Plane Wreck in San Bernardino Mountains

The bodies of four people were found Tuesday in the wreckage of a small plane that crashed in the foggy San Bernardino Mountains during a weekend flight from Las Vegas.

The three men and one woman were not immediately identified.

They probably died on impact, said Chip Patterson, a spokesman for the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department.

Part of a wing was torn off, but the fuselage was largely intact and there was no sign of fire, Patterson said.

A sheriff’s helicopter crew spotted the plane about 6:50 a.m. during a break in the cloud cover. Ground crews reached the wreck about 8 a.m. on a brushy slope at the 5,200-foot level, Patterson said.

National Transportation Safety Board investigators went to the scene.

Patterson said there was thick fog and cloud cover in the area Sunday night so weather would be considered as a cause.

The single-engine Piper Cherokee TA-28 was returning from Las Vegas to Brackett Field in La Verne when radar contact was lost, Federal Aviation Administration duty officer Bruce Nelson said.

The plane’s emergency locater beacon indicated that it went down around the San Sevaine area of Lytle Creek, 55 miles east of downtown Los Angeles.

Mark Weber, general manager of Air Desert Pacific Professional Flight Training, said the plane was rented from his office and those aboard were from Los Angeles.