Four Bodies Discovered in Wreckage of Santa Monica Plane Crash
The coroner’s office said Tuesday that four bodies were discovered in the wreckage of a plane crash at Santa Monica Airport.
Authorities recovered the bodies of two men and two women from the plain. Their names have not yet been released. It is believed that Mark Benjamin, CEO and president of Morley Builders, and his son Luke Benjamin, a senior project engineer at the company.
In addition, two cats and a dog were found among the plane wreckage.
A team from the National Transportation Safety Board has arrived at the crash site. Two large cranes were brought in on Monday to remove heavy steel trusses covering the twin-engine Cessna 525, and much of the burnt wreckage was pried from the hangar that collapsed on top of it.
The plane reportedly departed from Hailey, Idaho and then crashed around 6:20 p.m. It touched down at the airport, then veered off the runway and crashed into a hanger at which point it burst into flames.
According to an NTSB official, there was no communication with the pilot that indicated any type of problem prior to landing.
There is a voice recorder on the plane, NTSB investigators say, but they have not yet been able to recover it. They are hoping it will provide some insight into what happened.
Morley Builders is a well-known construction company throughout Southern California. The company has offices in San Diego, Irvine, and Santa Monica and has been in business since 1947.
The crashed has caused a spike in concerns about having an airport right in the middle of such a crowded residential area. The airport was surrounded by farm land when it was built in the 1920s. The residential neighborhoods that currently surround the airport were established decades later.
“The crash occurred 150 feet away from houses. I mean, that’s the really scary thing. In the two years that we’ve lived here, there have been two crashes. There was one two blocks away and then this one,” said Santa Monica resident Stacey Abrams-Sherick.
A 30-year land and building agreement between the city of Santa Monica and the Federal Aviation Administration will expire in 2015.
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