Business jet crashes into San Bernardino Mountains, killing 1

Rescue workers have recovered the body of a pilot after a business jet crashed into the San Bernardino Mountains near Los Angeles, according to local police. No one else was on board.

The accident happened at 8:21 p.m. on Saturday when the twin-engine plane – a Gulfstream 695A Turbo Commander – went down in the mountains just north of San Bernardino.

The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department said witnesses in the north-end of the city reported hearing a plane sputter and then a loud crash, followed by a red flash.

Initial rescue efforts were hampered by bad weather and darkness, making it impossible to go by vehicle or on foot and limiting the ability to search from the air. On Sunday morning, an aircraft located the crash site north of Devil’s Canyon.

“Due to the terrain, Search and Rescue department members were deployed and assisted an investigator from the Coroner’s Office to the debris field. A deceased adult male was located,” the sheriff’s department said in a statement.

The pilot’s identity was not immediately released. The plane, with registration number N965BC, had taken off from Stockton Metropolitan Airport east of San Francisco and was flying to Chino Airport, not far from San Bernardino.

Both the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) are investigating the cause of the crash.

Recovery operation is underway at the site of last night’s plane crash in #SanBernadino Members of the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Search and Rescue on the ground with assistance from Air Rescue 306 #PlaneCrash #SanBernardinoCounty pic.twitter.com/YedWQxD7Rh

— TCH (@thecadhound) April 14, 2024

Here is a photo of the Rockwell Commander, N965BC, landing at VNY in 2019. This is the aircraft that crashed yesterday
39 #flickr https://t.co/qjWeoPNTxU

— Matt Hartman (@ShorealoneFilms) April 14, 2024