Teens Killed in Plane Crash Near Ventura

Two Orange County teenagers were killed after their single-engine plane crashed into the rugged hills north of Ventura early Saturday, officials said.

The crash occurred shortly after midnight, when the rental Cessna 152 struck a hillside half a mile north of Emma Wood State Beach, Ventura County Sheriff’s Senior Deputy Harold Hanley said Saturday. The plane was fairly intact after the crash, he said.

Erik Marshall Lind and Tyson Michael Stearns, both 18 of Huntington Beach, were declared dead about 9:45 a.m., according to the Ventura County medical examiner’s office.

Lind was the pilot and like his father, who has been a commercial pilot for 32 years, had dreamed of flying for a living. He had obtained his pilot’s license at 17 and flown more than 120 hours, said his father, Skip Lind.

“He had his sights set on being a pilot,” the father said. “He was very determined. We had flown a lot together. He was a good pilot.”

The teens started their trip from John Wayne Airport in Orange County on Friday morning, the coroner’s office said. They first flew to the Santa Ynez area to visit Stearns’ family members and then to Santa Barbara to see a friend.

The plane left Santa Barbara Airport at 10:26 p.m. Friday, heading back to John Wayne Airport, according to Federal Aviation Administration officials.

Lind was a freshman at Cal State Long Beach, and Stearns was a freshman at Orange Coast College, according to Ventura County Senior Deputy Coroner Craig Stevens. Both are survived by their parents.

The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the crash, but Hanley said weather conditions probably created low visibility. He said Lind appeared to be trying to turn the plane.

“According to the rudders and the position of the plane, it looked like they were in the turning motion,” he said.

The visibility in Santa Barbara at the time of takeoff was four miles, and there were low clouds and haze, according to Weather Data Inc., which provides forecasts to The Times.

Local authorities were unaware of the crash until the Santa Barbara Sheriff’s Department picked up an aviation beacon signal at 8 a.m. They contacted the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department, which dispatched a helicopter and a search-and-rescue team.

At 9:15 a.m., searchers located the crash site and discovered Lind. After notifying his father, the search team was told there was also a passenger. They returned to the site, where they found Stearns partially ejected from the plane, sheriff’s officials said.

Impact with the mountain is the apparent cause of death, Stevens said.

Times staff writer Maria Elena Fernandez and Times Community News reporter Holly Wolcott contributed to this story.