Medical plane departing OC hits power lines before crashing near San Diego – Orange County Register

EL CAJON – A medical transport plane crashed into a power line in cloudy weather crashed last month near San Diego, federal investigators said Tuesday, killing two flight nurses and two pilots.

According to a preliminary report from the National Transportation Safety Board, the Learjet 35A crashed on December 27 while preparing to land in Gillespie Fields in El Cajon.

The weather was overcast with clouds and fog when the plane hit power lines and then crashed into the yard of a house in the unincorporated San Diego County area about 1.5 miles east of the runway, the report said. said.

The report did not indicate the exact cause of the crash, which is pending a final report.

No one on the ground was injured.

The crash killed pilots Douglas Grande, 42, and Julian Bugaj, 67, and flight nurses Christina Ward, 52, and Laurie Gentz, 68. They work for Aeromedevac Air Ambulance, according to the El Cajon-based company.

The twin-engine jet was registered with El Cajon-based Med Jet LLC, according to Federal Aviation Administration records.

The plane had flown that day from Lake Havasu in Arizona to Orange County, south of Los Angeles, to transfer patients and was returning to its home base at Gillespie Field when it crashed, the NTSB report said. .

Radio communication between the jet and the airport indicates that the pilot canceled the instrument flight rules approach to one runway and requested a change to another using visual flight rules .

After the switch was issued and new instructions were given, the pilot asked for the field lights to be turned on and was told they were at 100%.

The report indicated that the aircraft had encroached on the airfield at low altitude and did not make a significant climb during the turn for a field check.

Just before the plane crashed, the pilot suddenly exclaimed three times and screamed, according to communication recorded by LiveATC.net.