LOS ANGELES—The pilot and sole occupant of a small, single-engine airplane was found dead on a steep hillside above a home on the 3000 block of Beverly Glen Circle in Beverly Crest hours after the aircraft was reported missing April 29, according to the Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD).
No other deaths or injuries were reported.
At 8:09 p.m. Saturday federal air traffic controllers asked the fire department to “check a large swath of mountainous territory near Stone Canyon Road and Mulholland Drive,” just east of the San Diego Freeway, after they lost radar contact with the airplane, fire officials said.
The aircraft was reportedly traveling between the Santa Monica and Van Nuys airports, the fire department said.
“There were no 9-1-1 calls reporting any related sights or sounds,” a department statement said. “LAFD helicopters and ground crews searched the large fog-shrouded region for nearly an hour before an LAFD helicopter localized a signal from an aircraft Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon in the vicinity [believed within a quarter-mile] of Beverly Glen Terrace and Beverly Glen Boulevard.”
Dense fog and steep terrain prolonged the search, reducing visibility to about 50 feet, witnesses said. Crews finally reported finding the aircraft at 11:20 p.m. Saturday.
More than four dozen LAFD ground personnel systematically searched through the thick ground-level fog and rugged terrain north of Mulholland Drive in the Beverly Crest area where the aircraft’s emergency beacon was observed, the department said.
A pair of LAFD helicopters provided command support in the foggy skies.
“The tireless search by LAFD ground crews has located the single-engine airplane upon a steep hillside that includes a large water tank [not damaged], above a home,” LAFD spokesman Brian Humphrey said. “LAFD responders have discovered one person deceased at the scene. No other persons were believed aboard.”
Federal Aviation Administration air traffic controllers at the Van Nuys, Burbank Airport, and Los Angeles International Airports, as well as the United States Air Force and the pilot’s cellular telephone carrier all assisted in locating the airplane.
The pilot’s name has not been released.
