No survivors in Kern County plane crash

Air traffic controllers lost contact with the single-engine Piper PA32 about 4 p.m.as it was flying from Reid-Hillview Airport in San Jose to Henderson Executive Airport near Las Vegas, an FAA spokesman said.

The coroner has not released the names of the dead. The debris-field of the crash was almost a quarter-mile in length and it was found in an almond orchard at the southwest of the intersection of South Allen and Panama lanes in detached Kern County.

It was not immediately clear whether weather was a contributing factor, but light rain and mist were observed nearby at the time of the crash.

Investigators had not located the plane’s tail number, which would officially identify it as the aircraft out of San Jose, but authorities believe it is the plane.

Among the scattered wreckage were the five victims, King said.

When the plane went off radar, the Central California area was cloudy and rainy, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Hanford said.

The plane became the subject of a search after disappearing from radar, Kern County sheriff’s Sgt. Mark King said, and federal authorities are investigating the cause.

Information on a Federal Aviation Administration website suggested the plane headed for Bakersfield’s airport when trouble aboard the plane was noticed, and when the FAA received its first emergency call. The FAA says it will take months, if not longer, to determine the probable cause of this crash.