15-year-old killed in Ventura County plane crash with dad 'lived life to the fullest'

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Tuesday, June 6, 2017
Teen killed in plane crash with dad 'lived life to the fullest'
The wife and mother of a Calabasas father and son killed in a single-engine plane crash in Ventura County Sunday confirmed the identities of the two victims.

CALABASAS, Calif. (KABC) -- The wife and mother of a Calabasas father and son killed in a single-engine plane crash in Ventura County Sunday confirmed the identities of the two victims.

The occupants of the plane were 57-year-old Jim Harlan from Calabasas and his 15-year-old son, Dylan. The coroner also independently released the victims' names.

Loved ones say Dylan lived life to the fullest. He was a member of the Burbank Bears Club hockey team, where he had recently made the AAA team.

"Plays hockey, surfs, dives, travels the world," said Dylan's hockey coach Peter Torsson. "On the day he died, he surfed in the morning and flew in the afternoon."

Dylan had a bright future ahead. According to Torsson, he was well on his way to becoming a student athlete at a Division 1 college.

Torsson said he always taught the boys he coached to play like it was their last shift. "I guess it was his last shift," Torsson said of Dylan, through tears.

The plane that the two were aboard, described as a single-engine Piper PA-28, crashed around 3:30 p.m. Sunday on private property near the 2700 block of Marvella Court, in an area of Ventura County near Thousand Oaks.

Witnesses reported seeing the plane fly low over the area before the crash. The aircraft clipped at least one power line before it crashed into a horse arena, according to authorities.

No one on the ground was injured.

Authorities did not have immediate information on the likely cause of the crash. The FAA and NTSB continue to investigate.