5 dead after small plane crashes on island off southern California coast

Five people died when a small plane crashed during takeoff from Santa Catalina Island off the southern coast of California, authorities said.

The twin-engine Beechcraft 95 crashed shortly after 8 p.m. Tuesday, just minutes after taking off from Catalina Airport near the island town of Avalon, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

Five people were on board, the FAA said. Five adults were found dead at the scene on steep, rugged terrain about a mile west of the airport, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office said.

The crash occurred under “unknown circumstances” during takeoff, and those killed were the pilot and four passengers, the FAA later said in an online incident report. The FAA and National Transportation Safety Board will investigate.

Emergency crews responded after the Avalon Sheriff’s Station received a 911 emergency notification from a cell phone, officials said.

“The cellular device stated that the user’s cell phone was involved in a collision with possible injuries and provided a location as GPS coordinates,” the sheriff’s department said in a statement.

The airfield is known as the Airport in the Sky because of its precarious location at an elevation of 1,602 feet on the island, about 25 miles off the coast of Los Angeles. It has a single runway of 3,000 feet.

About 4,000 residents live year-round on Santa Catalina Island, where tourists from the mainland are drawn for snorkeling, boating, hiking and strolling the picturesque streets of Avalon’s oceanfront town.

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