SAN DIEGO - A Burbank resident who was one of two people killed in a plane crash at Marine Air Station Miramar over the weekend has been identified by authorities.
Friedrich Leo Weber, 51, died from severe trauma suffered in Saturday's crash, according to the Medical Examiner's Report.
The single-engine Piper Comanche was registered to Weber, according to flight records, but it's not clear if he was the one piloting the plane at the time of the crash.
The only other person on the plane, a woman, has not been identified.
The Piper Comanche was crossing the Marine Air Station Miramar landing pattern around 11 a.m. Saturday when air traffic controllers lost radar and radio contact with the plane, said chief investigator Wayne Pollack of the National Transportation Safety Board.
The plane crashed in vacant hilly terrain east of the runways at the Marine base. It had taken off from Whiteman Airpark in the San Fernando Valley and was en route to Brown Field.
Investigators have not released information about how the plane crashed or what it was doing in military airspace, although Pollack said air traffic controllers had given permission for the plane to be in military airspace.
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SAN DIEGO - Two people died when a single-engine Piper Comanche airplane crashed Saturday on vacant land east of the runways at Marine Air Corps Station Miramar.
A friend of the pilot fears his wife was also aboard the plane with him.
According to the FAA, the Piper was registered to Friedrich L Weber of Burbank, California.
The plane crashed in hilly terrain about eight miles northeast of Montgomery Field on military property.
Weber's family friend says he was flying with his wife to receive medical treatment in Mexico.
The plane had flown from from Whiteman Airport in the San Fernando Valley section of Los Angeles Saturday morning, and was heading to Brown Field Municipal Airport near the Mexican border, according to FAA spokesman Ian Gregor.
Air traffic controllers lost radio and radar contact with the pilot around 10:55 a.m., he said. They say he did not issue a distress call before the crash.
All possible causes are being investigated including the low, thick cloud cover at the time of the crash.
"That's certainly something the NTSD will look into - the weather conditions, as well as the condition of the aircraft and the performance of the pilot," said Gregor in a phone interview with San Diego 6 News.
The National Weather Service reports at 11:00 Mirmar had cloudy skies, no rain and southwest winds at 6 mile per hour. Just south of there, at Montgomery Field, the 11:00 report shows light rain and southwest winds at 6 mile per hour.
