5 dead in Catalina Island plane crash; investigation underway

Five people are dead after a twin-engine plane crashed on Catalina Island on Tuesday night, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said.

Just after 8 p.m., deputies at the sheriff’s Avalon station on the island received a 911 emergency notification from a cellphone alerting them that the plane had been in a collision involving injuries and sent them GPS coordinates, the Sheriff’s Department said in a news release.

Crews from Avalon and the L.A. County fire and sheriff’s departments joined in a search and found the plane about a mile west of Catalina Airport, according to the release.

The Beechcraft 95 had departed the airport with five people on board moments before it crashed, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. Five adults were found dead at the scene, the Sheriff’s Department said.

The National Transportation Safety Board will investigate the crash.

Catalina has been the site of several serious aviation crashes. In 2002, five people died when the aircraft slammed into a hillside on the island. Low visibility, light rain and mist caused the pilot to miss the runway at Catalina’s Airport in the Sky on the first try, officials said.

In 2008, three people were killed and three others were injured, two critically, when a sightseeing helicopter crashed near Two Harbors. The next year, three were killed when tour airplane that crashed in the rain.