4 Killed When Plane Crashes in Sierra National Forest

Four people were killed Friday when their small plane crashed in the Sierra National Forest.

John Darling said he heard an engine sputter, then saw the plane glide momentarily before it clipped tall pine trees about 10:15 a.m. The plane broke apart in a heavily wooded area about seven miles north of Bass Lake in Madera County.

“I heard it rev up and about five seconds later I heard a big crash, not like a tree falling but an automobile accident,” said Darling, who oversees the Chiokoot Campground several hundred yards from the crash site.

Darling called 911 and then climbed down a steep slope to reach the single-engine Piper Cherokee. Two men were in the cockpit and two women had been thrown about five yards from the plane. Authorities said they probably died on impact.

“It was really eerie,” Darling told Fresno’s KMPH-TV. “Dead bodies in the beautiful forest. Kind of strange.”

The identities of the victims were being withheld until their families could be notified. Authorities said two were from Georgia and two were from the Bass Lake area, about 160 miles east of San Francisco.

Madera County sheriff’s spokeswoman Rita Valdivia said the plane had been checked out of Chandler Airport in Fresno.