Cause of this crash is under investigation.

Victims of Monday's plane crash identified as Long Beach couple

By Kiley Russell

ASSOCIATED PRESS February 16, 2000

COULTERVILLE -- The victims of Monday's plane crash in the Sierra Nevada foothills were identified by investigators Wednesday as William Carl Davids Jr., 67, and his wife, Janet, 63.

The couple was on their way from Long Beach, where they lived, to Whidbey Island, Wash., where they kept a second home, when their single engine Cessna 182S went down just north of Coulterville near Highway 49 in Mariposa County.

Searchers found the bodies in the wreckage shortly before 7 a.m. Tuesday, following an all-night search on Penon Blanco Mountain in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada.

The couple left Long Beach on Sunday with Mr. Davids at the controls and landed at the Fresno/Yosemite Airport to wait out some bad weather before continuing their flight Monday morning, investigators believe.

The search began at about 8:30 p.m. Monday when Fresno Civil Air Patrol reported they had picked up a distorted emergency signal from the plane.

Investigators don't yet know what caused the crash, but say poor weather was reported in the area when the plane went down.

"It appears that the aircraft was in level flight when it hit the top of Penon Blanco Mountain," said Richard Parker, an investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board.

The NTSB and the Federal Aviation Administration are still investigating. Friends say the couple, who had no children, were well loved by their neighbors and the friends they had made over 20 years as members of the Long Beach Symphony Association.

Mr. Davids retired as a captain from the Pasadena Fire Department in 1983 and also owned a construction business that Mrs. Davids helped run, said friend and neighbor Burke Dignam.

"They were kind of the catalysts for the neighborhood," Dignam said. "Their door was always open -- you'd just walk in and have a cup of coffee or a drink at night, you'd just help yourself."

Link

http://www.uniontrib.com/news/state/20000216-991735-planecrash.html

-- Carl Jenkins (Somewherepress@aol.com), February 17, 2000