Coroner identifies 5th and final victim in small plane crash on Catalina Island
SANTA CATALINA ISLAND (CNS) -- Authorities Tuesday identified the last of the five people killed in the crash of a small plane on Santa Catalina Island.
Joeun Park, 37, was identified Tuesday by the Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner. Gonzalo Lubel, 34, was identified Friday as one of the fatal victims. On Thursday, coroner's officials identified the three other people who died: Haris Ali, a 33-year-old Fullerton man; Margaret Mary Fenner, 55; and Ali Reza Safai, a 73-year-old West Hills man.
According to Federal Aviation Administration records, the plane was registered to Safai, who was previously a flight instructor at now-defunct Santa Monica Aviation based at Santa Monica Airport.
The twin-engine Beechcraft 95-B55 crashed shortly after it departed from Catalina Airport in Avalon around 8 p.m. on Oct. 8, FAA spokesman Rick Breitenfeldt told City News Service.
The aircraft went down about a mile west of the airport.
"Five people were on board," Breitenfeldt said. "The FAA and National Transportation Safety Board will investigate. The NTSB will be in charge of the investigation and will provide further updates."
The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department's Avalon station said it received an SOS emergency notification from a cell phone that stated its user may have been involved in a collision with possible injuries.
"Avalon Station deputies responded to the location along with Los Angeles County Fire Department, Avalon Search and Rescue and Avalon City Fire Department members," according to the sheriff's department. "Under a unified command, they were able to locate the wreckage of a twin-engine aircraft approximately one mile west of Catalina Island Airport.
"While at the crash site, five adults were located and pronounced deceased at the scene."
According to the FlightAware flight-tracking website, the Beechcraft airplane took off from Santa Monica Airport shortly before 6 p.m. Tuesday and arrived at Catalina Airport about 20 minutes later.
Catalina Airport is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., and aircraft operations are generally prohibited at all other times or when the airport is unattended.
An airport official told the Southern California News Group on Thursday that the pilot had made arrangements to land at the airfield after operating hours on Tuesday, but did not have approval to take off later that night.
