4 Dead After Small Plane Crashes in Snowstorm in San Diego County
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RANCHITA, Calif. — A single-engine airplane flying in a snowstorm crashed on a remote hill in eastern San Diego County, killing the four people on board, authorities said Sunday.
The Piper Cherokee was heading from Deer Valley Airport in Phoenix, Ariz., to Palomar Airport when it vanished shortly before 8 p.m. Saturday, sheriff’s Sgt. Mike McNally said.
No emergency transmission was received, and a snowstorm created poor visibility that prevented an aerial search for the plane that night, McNally said.
Shortly before 4 a.m., Civil Air Patrol units spotted the plane on a hill three miles south of Sunshine Ridge near the Cleveland National Forest, about 40 miles northeast of San Diego.
The ages and identities of the victims were not immediately known. The cause of the crash was under investigation, said Jerry Acosta, a duty officer for the Federal Aviation Administration in Los Angeles.
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