Crews began recovery efforts on Monday to locate all the wreckage of a downed Cessna 140, which crashed east of Gilroy this weekend, killing both people on board.
Also, the National Transportation Safety Board began formally investigating the crash, that claimed the lives of a Gilroy man and a San Jose woman - the only two on the plane. Neither had been formally identified on Monday morning.
Allen Kenitzer, a spokesperson for the Federal Aviation Administration, told NBC Bay Area, that the plane took off from Frazier Lake Skypark east of Gilroy on Saturday evening and was flying from Hollister to Watsonville. It crashed under unknown circumstances approximately 4 miles north-west of Hollister, Kenitzer said. The wreckage was discovered Sunday morning.
Deputies responded to a call around 10 a.m. from a rancher who reported the crash near Highway 152 and Canada Road, Santa Clara County sheriff's Sgt. Kurtis Stenderup said.
The aircraft sustained substantial damage.
The tight-knit community of pilots was stunned.
"I knew him," Raymond Aalsgaard of Hollister said. "It's kind of hard, especially when you have a passenger. You have that responsibility."
Local
NBC Bay Area's Vince Cestone contributed to this report.
