How to resolve AdBlock issue? NORTHERN CALIFORNIA – On Monday morning investigators remained at the scene of a fatal plane crash that killed a Susanville couple near Auburn on Saturday night.
The single-engine, fixed-wing Cessna 170 crashed under unknown circumstances in a wooded area one mile south of the Auburn airport around 9 p.m. Saturday, according to Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor.
Dena Erwin of the Placer County Sheriff’s said the crash victims were Bruce Aldridge Rhymes, 59, and his wife Kathy Lorraine Rhymes, 58, both of Susanville.
The plane was registered to the couple, according to the FAA’s plane registry.
Josh Cawthra, an aviation accident investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board, was at the scene on Monday.
He confirmed to Lake County News that the plane had taken off from Middletown but said he could not offer further details until later on Monday.
According to a statement from the Placer County Sheriff’s Office, the agency received a call from the California Office of Emergency Services at 12:30 a.m. Sunday to assist in a search for a possible downed aircraft near the Auburn airport.
Commercial airliners confirmed a distress signal from an aircraft’s emergency locating transmitter, and CalEMA also provided specific GPS information for the California Highway Patrol’s fixed wing and Placer County Sheriff’s helicopter, according to the report.
Placer County officials said the accident site was located by the joint efforts of CHP’s fixed wing and a sheriff’s deputy on the ground equipped with a handheld radio programmed with the distress signal information.
Gregor said the wreckage was found around 1:45 a.m. Sunday.
He said both NTSB and FAA investigators were at the crash site on Sunday.
A basic preliminary report should be available from the NTSB within a week or two, said Gregor, adding that it typically takes the NTSB months to come up with a probable cause for accidents.
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