التاريخ:الاثنين 8-02-2010 الموافق 24 صفر 1431هـ
الضحايا: شخصين
طراز الطائرة:طائرة أستعراض من نوع Yakovlev YAK52
An experimental aircraft crashed in the Santa Ana River near Mentone, killing both people aboard.
The plane, a single-engine, Yakovlev YAK52 bearing the paint scheme of the Russian military, went down just before 1 p.m. Monday in the Santa Ana River Wash. The plane's two passengers - a man and a woman - have not yet been identified.
Jodi Miller, spokeswoman for the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department, said emergency crews responded to the crash site after a witness saw the plane go down.
"The reporting parties state that he saw an aircraft in the area of the Santa Ana Creek doing aerobatics," Miller said. "It's my understanding that that's quite common in this area, for planes to perform aerobatics out here."
The plane lost altitude for an unknown reason and crashed, she said.
It departed from Redlands Airport and the pilot intended to return there, said Ian Gregor, communications manager for the Federal Aviation Administration.
The Yakovlev is registered to Joseph M. Gauthier, a Riverside resident, according to the FAA's Web site.
Pete Krok, a member of the Redlands chapter of the Experimental Aircraft Association, said the Yakovlev's owners kept the plane in Redlands, but they weren't a part of the EAA.
"They were independent for the most part," he said.
Krok could not confirm the names of the plane's owners.
Todd Housley, manager of the Redlands Municipal Airport, said he knew the plane did take off from the airport, but could not release the names of the passengers.
Investigators from the FAA and National Transportation Safety Board traveled to the site Monday after the crash, Gregor wrote in an e-mail. But neither agency has identified the passengers killed in the crash.