Thermal-bound pilot found dead in plane crash
California’s Civil Air Patrol confirms it found a missing Cessna in the “Borrego Badlands”, after it departed the Thermal airport Friday morning.
According to incident commander, Capt. Shane Terpstra, the aircraft took off from Jacqueline Cochran Regional Airport on Friday morning and did not return from a round-trip flight to the Borrego Springs area in northeast San Diego County.
Saturday morning, officials say one of the Civil Air Patrol aircraft located the missing airplane in a remote area of the Anza Borrego State Park. The missing airplane appeared to have crashed and was lying upside down. The area it was located in is commonly referred to as the “Borrego Badlands” and is very desolate.
The Civil Air Patrol aircraft guided the ground search crew into the area of the crash via radio. One member of the ground search crew located a dead man near the wreckage. Deputies from the Sheriff’s Rural Division and the Sheriff’s Search and Rescue were able to drive to within approximately one half mile of the crash site. They hiked into the area to secure the site and later escorted personnel from the San Diego County Medical Examiner’s Office into the area to conduct their investigation.
The Medical Examiner’s Office will determine the cause of death and notify the next of kin.
The F.A.A. and N.T.S.B. were notified and they will be responding to the crash site Sunday to conduct their investigation.
The aircraft involved is a single-engine Cessna 162 Skycatcher. The aircraft is configured with two seats, though only the pilot was believed to be on board.
Public information officer Maj. Crystal Housman says this is the second aircraft search that Civil Air Patrol’s California Wing has been involved in this week. On Tuesday morning, a CAP aircrew located a crashed Piper PA 28 and is credited with saving the pilot, who was stranded overnight in a southern area of the Sierra Nevada mountain range.
