4 LA County Residents Killed In Plane Crash In Corona

LOS ANGELES, CA — Four people from Los Angeles County were killed in Wednesday's airplane crash in Corona, according to the Riverside County Sheriff's Coroner Bureau.

Joseph Zingali, 85, of Torrance, Paula Mitchell, 61, of La Mirada, and Whittier residents Teresa Rodriguez, 63, and Daniel Rodriquez, 70, were killed in the crash.

According to the FAA Registry, Zingali was the plane's owner.

National Transportation Safety Board investigators spent part of Thursday examining the burned wreckage of the fixed-wing single-engine airplane that crashed during takeoff from Corona Municipal Airport, killing all four on board.

The 1983 Beech Bonanza went down shortly after noon Wednesday as the pilot was trying to depart Runway 7 at the non-towered airfield.

According to Corona police, fire crews reached the crash site within 10 minutes and found the plane engulfed in flames, which were doused after burning about a quarter-acre of brush. No homes or other structures were in the immediate vicinity.

A Corona Fire Department spokesman said that the Bonanza had been topped off with 80 gallons of gasoline, suggesting that with all four seats occupied, it may have been overloaded. The plane hit a fence after rising only a few feet from the runway surface, causing it to cartwheel onto vacant property owned by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Witnesses said that the pilot appeared unable to rotate the plane as he approached the runway edge. Corona Municipal Airport's single general aviation runway is only 3,200 feet long, and is bounded at both ends by thick brush, with power lines on the east end of the field.

A preliminary NTSB report on the crash will likely be published next week.

Patch staffer Toni McAllister and City News Service contributed to this report