WATSONVILLE – Authorities on Monday recognized three individuals who died in a mid-air airplane collision at a rural Santa Cruz County airport final week.
The Santa Cruz County Sheriff-Coroner recognized the victims as 75-year-old Carl Kruppa and 67-year-old Nannette Plett-Kruppa, each of Winton, and 32-year-old Stuart Camenson, of Santa Cruz.
The Federal Aviation Administration and the Nationwide Transportation Security Board are investigating the crash.
In response to the businesses, a single-engine Cessna 152 occupied by one particular person and a Cessna 340 occupied by two individuals collided shortly earlier than 3 p.m. Thursday on the Watsonville Municipal Airport.
“From preliminary info, it seems that one plane was within the site visitors sample, and one other plane was coming in to land,” NTSB investigator Fabian Salazar mentioned at a information convention Friday.
The airport has a typical site visitors advisory frequency pilots can use to “announce their actions, each coming and going,” mentioned Salazar, including “there isn't any requirement that I’m conscious of that makes a person have to make use of that widespread site visitors advisory frequency.”
The Cessna 152 was registered to Monterey Bay Aviation Inc. and the Cessna 340 was registered to ALM Holding LLC, in response to FAA data. United Flight Companies, which relies on the airport, listed the Cessna 152 as obtainable for lease on its web site.
Witnesses reported seeing the 2 plane collide about 200 toes within the air. Franky Herrera, 26, of Watsonville, mentioned the twin-engine airplane banked onerous and clipped the wing of the single-engine airplane, inflicting the latter to spiral down and crash close to the sting of the airport.
The opposite airplane continued on however “it was struggling,” Herrera mentioned, and he quickly noticed flames on the opposite facet of the airport.
A remaining report on the crash might take two years to finish, in response to the NTSB.