Airplane Pilot Killed In Oceanside Plane Crash ID'd

OCEANSIDE, CA – Authorities released the name Wednesday of a 58-year-old Orange County man who was killed when the light airplane he was piloting crashed into a hillside alongside a freeway in northern Oceanside.

Authorities found the body of Raymond Petty Jr. of Yorba Linda on Tuesday morning amid the mangled remnants of the Piper PA-28 Cherokee, which had gone down on the north side of state Route 76 near Canyon Drive the previous evening, according to the San Diego County Medical Examiner's Office.

A passenger in the plane survived the accident and remained trapped in the fog-bound wreckage for more than 10 hours, until daylight and clearing skies revealed the crash site where he lay stranded.

The survivor, whose name was withheld, was admitted to Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla for treatment of severe injuries.

According to the Federal Aviation Administration, the aircraft had taken off from nearby Oceanside Municipal Airport about 9 p.m. Monday and crashed shortly thereafter for unknown reasons near the top of the roadside ridge just south of the San Luis Rey River.

Investigators with the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board were called in to determine the cause of the aviation accident.

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