Pilot dies in plane crash near Morongo Valley

The pilot of a small plane that crashed in a canyon near Morongo Valley died in the crash, according to the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department.

{“url”:”https://twitter.com/JakeKESQ/status/1093610510661050368″,”author_name”:”Jake Ingrassia”,”author_url”:”https://twitter.com/JakeKESQ”,”html”:”&#lt;blockquote class=”twitter-tweet”&#gt;&#lt;p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”&#gt;WATCH: &#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/KESQ?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;@KESQ&#lt;/a&#gt; News Drone 3 captures up-close video of the crashed &#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/MorongoValley?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;#MorongoValley&#lt;/a&#gt; plane. &#lt;a href=”https://t.co/X1G26ndwEg”&#gt;pic.twitter.com/X1G26ndwEg&#lt;/a&#gt;&#lt;/p&#gt;— Jake Ingrassia (@JakeKESQ) &#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/JakeKESQ/status/1093610510661050368?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;February 7, 2019&#lt;/a&#gt;&#lt;/blockquote&#gt;n&#lt;script async src=”https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″&#gt;&#lt;/script&#gt;n”,”width”:550,”height”:null,”type”:”rich”,”cache_age”:”3153600000″,”provider_name”:”Twitter”,”provider_url”:”https://twitter.com”,”version”:”1.0″}

The Riverside County Sheriffs Department says the wreckage was located around 9:00 p.m. two miles north of Indian Trail. The Riverside Mountain Rescue Unit was called in to help.

The single-engine Cessna 172 crashed ‘under unknown circumstances’ around 6:15 p.m. Tuesday into the side of a canyon, according to information sent to News Channel 3 by a Federal Aviation Administration official. It is believed that the pilot was the sole occupant of the plane.

The plane departed San Gabriel Valley Airport bound for North Las Vegas airport at 5:30 p.m.

The National Transportation Safety Board has been notified. The cause of the crash remains under investigation.

{“url”:”https://twitter.com/JakeKESQ/status/1093221765210198016″,”author_name”:”Jake Ingrassia”,”author_url”:”https://twitter.com/JakeKESQ”,”html”:”&#lt;blockquote class=”twitter-tweet”&#gt;&#lt;p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”&#gt;Here’s the command center at Hwy 62 and N. Indian Canyon. We can’t see the plane – it’s a hike into the canyon. &#lt;a href=”https://t.co/46WVbU9XeP”&#gt;pic.twitter.com/46WVbU9XeP&#lt;/a&#gt;&#lt;/p&#gt;– Jake Ingrassia (@JakeKESQ) &#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/JakeKESQ/status/1093221765210198016?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;February 6, 2019&#lt;/a&#gt;&#lt;/blockquote&#gt;n&#lt;script async src=”https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″&#gt;&#lt;/script&#gt;n”,”width”:550,”height”:null,”type”:”rich”,”cache_age”:”3153600000″,”provider_name”:”Twitter”,”provider_url”:”https://twitter.com”,”version”:”1.0″}