Authorities have identified the two Bay Area residents who were killed in a plane crash near the south end of Lake Tahoe Saturday evening.
The El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office confirmed Thursday that Conrad Yu, 73, of Oakley and Mary Choy, 66, of San Francisco were the only two people aboard the single-engine Beech 35 Bonanza when it crashed next to a house at around 5:30 p.m. Yu, who was the pilot and registered owner of the plane, and Choy both died in the crash.
Yu was the CEO of a chemical analysis company and worked for more than two decades at Lawrence Livermore Laboratory as a project leader, according to his LinkedIn profile.
The Federal Aviation Administration is still investigating the cause of the crash, though witnesses told the Associated Press that they heard what sounded like engine trouble shortly after it took off from Lake Tahoe Airport.
The plane erupted into flames after crashing into a tree not far from where it took off. The fire quickly spread to a nearby house, where two occupants and a dog were able to safely evacuate.
No one on the ground at the time of the crash was hurt, police said.
