Lytle Creek, California: Wreckage from a downed plane and the remains of its pilot were found last weekend, likely solving the disappearance of a former Israeli paratrooper who crashed here seven years ago. An extensive three-week search was launched in June 2001 after Daniel Katz, a 24-year-old resident of Mexico City and Israel, never returned to La Verne in his rented Piper PA Archer.
Two San Bernardino County sheriff’s deputies spotted the mangled metal Saturday afternoon near Middle Fork east of Cucamonga Peak while doing a routine aerial patrol over Lytle Creek.
Eight search-and-rescue crew members on Sunday were lowered 5,700 feet to the wreckage to confirm the plane tail number.
It matches the single-engine Piper PA that Katz flew out of Brackett Field in La Verne in 2001. He landed at Perris Valley Airport in Riverside for a skydiving trip with friends, which was canceled because of overcast skies.
Katz, who racked up about 90 hours of flight time, was licensed for single-engine planes and training for twin-engine craft.
Friends watched him climb into the plane around 7:15 p.m. the night he disappeared. Katz flew north along the 215 Freeway before turning west.
Airport radio operators notified Katz that he was flying too low. Katz lifted to 2,900 feet – still well below the height of several peaks in the Lytle Creek area – less than two minutes before flying off radar.
A beacon tracking Katz’s flight stopped at the mouth of a Lytle Creek canyon, according to a National Transportation Safety Board report. It was within the area state Office of Emergency Services officials, Civil Air Patrol and crews from both San Bernardino and Riverside county sheriff’s departments searched until June 25, 2001.
Pieces of the tan and brown plane were scattered across the Lytle Creek mountainside. Skeletal fragments were discovered 400 feet from the crash site.
Gabriel Morales, supervising deputy at the coroner’s office, said they have not positively identified the remains, but authorities said the odds are that it is Katz.
The NTSB is expected to further investigate the cause of the crash now that the wreckage has been discovered.
Although weather prevented Katz and his friends from completing their skydiving jumps on June 3, 2001, visibility was reported at seven miles that night. Skies were overcast at the 2,500-foot elevation.
(LINK to The Sun report)
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One Response
Why did it take so long? The article isn’t clear!
Seven years is an awful long time! It doesn’t seem like particularly difficult terrain: I think!!
Can someone please enlighten me?