The victims of the tragic airplane accident have been identified by the Humboldt County Coroner’s Office as:
Larry Mills age 54.
Deborah Kroon age 49.Michelle Tarwater age 30.
April Rodriquez age 35.
April Rodriquez was the patient who was being transported to Oakland, California when the accident occurred. The other three victims were employees of REACH. All of the victims were from Crescent City, California.
Friday, July 29 - 12:45 update
Latest update on today's airplane crash:The National Transportation Safety Board will arrive tomorrow around 1100 hours.
The Humboldt County Sheriff's Office has secured the scene. There is a quarter-mile mile debris field for the crash site.
Personnel have confirmed plane went down into timber.Sheriff’s Office is in communication with REACH Air Medical Services with information for the victim’s family.
Personnel have confirmed four people were on the plane, and as noted earlier confirmed two fatalities.
10:55 update
This morning at about 10 a.m. Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office search and rescue teams located a crash site on private timber company in the Cranell area of Humboldt County which is located to the north of McKinleyville. At this time at least two fatalities have been confirmed. National Transportation Safety Board has been notified.
Continue to check this page and our Facebook page for updates.
Original news release at 8:15 a.m.:
This is all of the preliminary information we have on a missing plane in the Arcata area:
The pilot of a twin-engine Piper PA31 declared an emergency due to smoke in the cockpit around 1 a.m. Friday.
The plane was flying from Crescent City to Oakland.
The pilot indicated he was going to return to Crescent City.
Radar contact with the aircraft was lost about 5 miles northeast of Arcata Airport.
We believe there were three people on board.
The Humboldt County Sheriff is searching for the aircraft.
The tail number is N661TC.