Here’s the latest on Saturday’s deadly plane crash in California’s Central Valley
The National Transportation Safety Board will lead the investigation into what caused the Saturday plane crash that killed four people near Highway 99 south of Visalia in Tulare County.
The plane, a single-engine Beechcraft Bonanza, crashed just south of Visalia Municipal Airport after departing about 6:35 p.m., according to a statement from the Federal Aviation Administration, which was at the crash site Sunday.
The FAA will assist the NTSB investigation, though the NTSB will provide updates as they occur.
According to the Tulare County Sheriff’s Office, dispatch received its first call on the incident from a resident who said she heard the plane and then a boom. Deputies remained on scene overnight until the FAA and NTSB took over Sunday morning.
Fog was rolling in and out of the area at the time of the crash, the Sheriff’s Office said, but it is unknown if the fog was a factor in the crash.
The identities of the four people on the plane had not been released and the FAA had yet to release the aircraft registration number, but according to flight records and an FAA database, the plane that left Visalia Municipal Airport just before the crash was registered to David Chelini from Sacramento.
According to the flight tracking website FlightAware, the plane made an 1 hour, 2 minute flight from Sacramento earlier Saturday afternoon. It is not clear where the plane was headed from Visalia.
