Tehachapi assistant manager among victims in post-parade plane crash
| Saturday, Jul 04 2009 03:54 PM
Last Updated Saturday, Jul 04 2009 07:29 PM
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Two people were killed Saturday afternoon when an old-style military plane that had flown over a local parade earlier in the day crashed in the Tehachapi area, igniting a grass fire that authorities said was quickly contained.
One of the victims, the pilot, was the manager of the Tehachapi Municipal Airport, David Zweigle, age 42, said his sister-in-law, Kristi Zweigle.
The other victim, the passenger, also worked at the airport, said Mike Nixon, owner of a Tehachapi business that restores vintage aircraft.
Authorities did not release names of the people confirmed killed.
The plane was believed to be a Czechoslovakian-built L-29 Delfin. The aircraft came to a stop in the 20000 block of Old Town Road , said Lt. J.R. Rodriguez of the county sheriff's department.
"It looks like it exploded upon impact," he said.
Nixon said the plane hit ground in a field about 1,000 feet from the road, then bounced or skidded onto asphalt. The crash was first reported at around 1:30 p.m..
Firefighters were able to protect four or five nearby structures that had been threatened by the two- or three-acre grass fire, said Sean Collins, a public information officer with the county fire department.
Tehachapi professional photographer Nick Smirnoff said the L-29 was among three that flew in a city-organized holiday parade Saturday.
As in years past, he said, the planes flew over a parade route in celebration of the Fourth of July.
Officials from the National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration were investigating the crash.
