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Six killed in plane crash are identified as family members
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More from StateKERNVILLE (AP) — A relative has identified the six victims of a small-plane crash as members of a family headed for a weekend getaway.
The six, including two small children, died when a plane that took off from Santa Monica Airport crashed in the Sierra foothills near Kern Valley Airport on Friday, authorities said.
Sal Yaman, nephew of Adam Pasori, 56, pilot of the plane, said the victims included Pasori, of Santa Monica; brother David Pasori, in his 40s; Mila Kuygusuz, a sister in her 40s; Kuygusuz's two daughters, Nasrin, 5 months, and Meriem, 2; and Sibel, Adam Pasori's wife, who was in her 30s.
"They were supposed to have fun," Yaman told the Los Angeles Times. "Now they're all dead. There's no fun left."
The single-engine Lancair Columbia crashed and caught fire as it approached the airport about 5:30 p.m., Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor said.
An investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board said as the plane prepared for landing, the pilot made two unusual turns that could be related to the crash. The plane turned over in the middle of the runway and at the departure end, possibly in reaction to wind conditions, safety investigator Thomas Little said.
"They lost control for some reason," he said. "It could have been a multitude of things."
Yaman, who was mourning with some 20 other relatives in Santa Monica on Saturday, said the family was going to a lake in Bakersfield. He said Kuygusuz's husband was driving to Kern County to meet them.
"When he got there, the tragedy had already happened," Yaman said. "An hour earlier, he was calling the family to see how they were, but there was no answer."
Kern Valley Airport manager Jeltje Nelson said she heard no sounds of engine trouble as the plane approached the runway.
"He was too high, and when he got a little way farther above the runway, he made a banking left turn to the west," she said. "I turned my back and thought I'd talk to him on the (radio) about what the wind was doing, and then I heard two pops, and the plane was on the ground and on fire."
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