3 die in plane crash at Big Bear; nearby lakeside cabins set ablaze

A small twin-engine plane heading from Big Bear City Airport to Las Vegas plummeted from the sky Tuesday morning, killing three people on board in a fiery crash at the southwestern edge of Big Bear Lake, authorities said.

Coroner’s officials still have not released the identities of the pilot and passengers of the Cessna 421b. But an official involved with the investigation, and a friend of the plane’s owner, confirmed that the aircraft was owned by Bob Cartwright of Sugarloaf, who also was aboard as a passenger.

Rod Watkins of Hemet said he had planned to join Cartwright and another friend for an overnight trip to Las Vegas, where they were going to see a show. Watkins said he decided at the last minute not to go.

The plane’s pilot left Apple Valley Airport on Tuesday morning and stopped at the Big Bear Airport to pick up Cartwright and the friend, Watkins said.

Shortly after takeoff, just five miles from Big Bear Airport, the plane went down near Waterview Drive, skimming pine trees before slamming into a small unoccupied cabin by the lake just 25 yards from another home.

“It was just a big boom,” said Chris O’Connell, 17, of Big Bear Lake, who was sitting by the lake with friends when he saw the plane careen into the cabin. “It sounded like a car crash. It lit up the whole hillside and a bunch of brush.... I’ve never seen anything like this.”

The plane crashed about 10:15 a.m. with one wing in Big Bear Lake, in an area known as Metcalf Bay. Both the plane and the unoccupied mountain cabin burned, lighting a second cabin on fire, according to officials from the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department.

Firefighters quickly contained the blaze.

Officials from the Federal Aviation Administration and the Sheriff’s Department said they did not know if the pilot had reported any problems. FAA spokesman Ian Gregor said the plane was not in contact with or under orders from air traffic control, which he said was common on days with light winds and clear skies.

Natalia Wood, 39, who lives within walking distance of the crash site, said she felt her house rumble. “I thought it was an earthquake,” said Wood, who has lived in the area for 12 years. “I saw [shooting] flames come up in the trees.”

She dialed 911, then ran across the street for a closer look. “Then there was a big boom, and everything was engulfed in flames,” Wood said. She said Roy Rogers used to own the cabin that the plane hit.

The flames spread from the cabin to an adjacent 800-square-foot wooden cabin, burning most of it.

Most of the plane’s wreckage, including the fuselage, was on land, according to San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department spokeswoman Tiffany Swantek. Sheriff’s Department divers checked the wreckage in the lake.

Firefighters from the Big Bear Lake, Fawnskin and Big Bear City fire departments, as well as the U.S. Department of Forestry, helped extinguish the flames by noon, Swantek said.

Jerry Kirkegaard, 61, of Big Bear City said Cartwright was a local celebrity and news personality on Big Bear Channel 6.

“He’d been here a long time. He was interesting to listen to on television. He was one of the names, where if you’ve been in the area long enough, you know him,” Kirkegaard said.

Watkins, general manager of the Big Bear City Community Services District, where Cartwright was a former board member, said the Big Bear community was struggling with the loss of his friend.

Watkins said Cartwright’s former pilot, 26-year-old Tyler Stanger of Walnut, died in an Oct. 11 plane crash in New York City along with New York Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle.

Stanger and Lidle, who grew up in West Covina, were killed when the single-engine plane they were flying rammed into a luxury high-rise overlooking the East River.

Watkins said Cartwright hired pilots long-term. After Stanger’s death, he hired the pilot who was killed with him Tuesday, he said.

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