SF Man Dead, 3 Hospitalized In Sonoma Valley Plane Crash

SONOMA COUNTY, CA -- Authorities with the Sonoma County Sheriff's Office identified the victim killed in a plane crash Thursday in Sonoma Valley that sent three others to area hospitals as 38-year-old William Sachs Goldman of San Francisco. It was not immediately clear if Goldman was piloting the single-engine plane when it went down at about 12:45 p.m. near Sonoma Skypark Airport.

The Schell-Vista Fire Protection District and Sonoma County Sheriff's Office responded to the crash, which happened in a rural field in Schell Vista, in the area of San Luis Road and Broadway, south of Sonoma.

"The [private] plane carried four passengers," said sheriff's Spokeswoman Misti Harris. "There is one confirmed fatality. The three other passengers were transported to local hospitals."

Two of the passengers were flown by helicopter to a hospital, while the other was taken by ambulance, a fire dispatcher said.

The extent of their injuries were not immediately known. According to news reports, one or more of the passengers were taken to Children's Hospital Oakland.

Federal Aviation Administration Spokesman Ian Gregor said the plane was a single-engine Cirrus SR22 that crashed in a field about 1,000 feet west of the airport.

The plane went down "under unknown circumstances," Gregor told Patch in an email. "The FAA and NTSB will investigate."

As of 3:45 p.m., two FAA inspectors were en route to the crash site, Gregor said. He did not immediately have information about where the plane had been traveling to or from.

The plane's tail number indicates it was manufactured in 2011 and is registered to an LLC in Palo Alto. A search of the California LLC led to Goldman's name.

Patch will update this breaking news story as more information becomes available; refresh the page for the latest.

Bay City News Service contributed to this report.

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