Memorial Services Today For CHP Pilot
A memorial service will be held today in Oceanside for a Thermal-based California Highway Patrol pilot who was killed in a plane crash in the mountains of Anza-Borrego Desert State Park.
Officer Danny Benavides, a 13-year CHP veteran, was found dead by a search-and-rescue team about 4 p.m. last Friday in the wreckage of his aircraft about two miles north of Split Mountain.
The memorial service is set for 11 a.m. at New Venture Christian Fellowship, 4000 Mystra Way in Oceanside, said CHP Officer Scott Beauchene.
Benavides took off in a Cessna 206 patrol aircraft at 7:15 a.m. on May 7 from Thermal, according to a preliminary report from the National Transportation Safety Board.
He tracked vehicles for CHP officers on the ground between 8:30 a.m. and 9:20 a.m. near Highway 86 and Hoskins Street, 21 miles north of El Centro, according to the report.
Around 9:30 a.m., the CHP officers decided to move to Interstate 8 and Dunway Road. By 10 a.m., the El Centro Communications Center reported that radio contact with the officer had been lost, the report states.
At 10:06 a.m., someone reported seeing smoke near Split Mountain to the California Department of Parks and Recreation, according to the NTSB.
Benavides was assigned to the Border Division Thermal Air Operations Unit as a fixed-wing aircraft pilot in July 2006. The unit uses small aircraft to monitor freeways and radio information about speeders on freeways in Riverside, Imperial and San Diego counties.
His previous assignments included working in Monterey, San Jose, San Diego and Oceanside.
Benavides is survived by his wife and 9-year-old daughter.
