Plane Crash in Desert Kills 2

A small business jet carrying two pilots plummeted more than 20,000 feet and exploded into the Mojave Desert between Victorville and Barstow on Tuesday morning.

The jet, a Lear 24B built in 1969, was en route from Chino Airport to Sun Valley, Idaho, when one of the pilots contacted an air traffic control tower and reported that he might have to return to Chino, a Federal Aviation Administration spokesman said.

“Shortly after saying, ‘I think I need to return,’ which was apparently not a major emergency call, [the pilot] declared an emergency,” FAA spokesman Donn Walker said.

Almost simultaneously, Walker said, all radio and radar contact with the plane was lost at 9:11 a.m. Radar last placed the plane at 24,000 feet.

Witnesses saw the jet crash into a canyon an estimated 300 to 400 yards west of Interstate 15 between the Wild Wash Road exit and National Trails Highway in a desert region known as Helendale, California Highway Patrol and San Bernardino County Sheriff’s spokespersons said.

“The indication from witnesses is that [the jet] came down in a fairly vertical position, and that there was a pretty good explosion,” Walker said. “There was no information that he was trying to land on the freeway.”

Walker said the jet, equipped with a two-person cockpit and six passenger seats, was due to collect passengers in the Idaho ski resort town for a return trip to Southern California. Walker said he was unsure when the jet was scheduled to return from Idaho.

The San Bernardino County coroner did not immediately identify the pilots.