Pilot, passenger die in California small plane crash

The plane, a Cessna 182, was rented out of the San Diego area, authorities said. The Santa Barbara County coroner’s unit was in the process of identifying victims Friday evening, according to the news release.

A pilot has been found dead in a small airplane that crashed in a remote area of Southern California.

The Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office has released the identity of the two people who were killed in a plane crash in Santa Barbara County late Thursday night.

Authorities came across the second body, when the search and rescue team were trying to pull the pilot’s body from the wreckage.

The plane was spotted early Friday on a mountainside 30 to 40 miles north of Ojai.

The victims are in their 50s to 60s, said Kelly Hoover, spokeswoman for the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office.

“Due to the fact the plane could have landed in the ocean or on land in either Santa Barbara County or Ventura County, personnel from both counties and the U.S. Coast Guard responded”, the Sheriff’s Office said in a statement. Because of the rugged terrain, search and rescue crews could not reach the plane until about 7 a.m., she said.

The National Transportation Safety Board will conduct an investigation into the cause of the crash and the surrounding circumstances.