Five people killed when small plane crashed in California

Authorities have yet to identify the victims but a family friend says those aboard the single-engine Piper PA32 were Jason and Olga Price and their three children.

The plane departed from Reid-Hillview Airport in San Jose and was headed to Henderson Executive Airport in Clark County, which is located just outside Las Vegas, Nevada.

Air traffic controllers lost contact with the plane around 4 p.m. Saturday, Gregor said.

The passengers’ bodies were found among the wreckage of the deadly Saturday crash in an orchard southwest of Bakersfield, but they were not yet identified, the Associated Press reports.

The plane had sent out signals of distress before it completely disappeared from the radar about 10 miles south of Bakersfield, according to the Sheriff’s office. The sheriff’s office and several other agencies, including the California Highway Patrol, responded and conducted a ground search.

The aircraft with tail number N36402 is registered to RAD Aviation of San Jose, Calif. It appears that that plane has been owned by the same company since it was built in 2006.

The coroner’s office has not released the identities of the victims.

A weather front was moving through southern Kern County at the time.

A National Transportation Safety Board investigator and two FAA inspectors were at the crash site Sunday afternoon, Gregor said. He said the debris field stretched about a quarter of a mile. Authorities are investigating the cause of the accident.