Authorities have identified four of the five people killed in the crash of a small plane on Catalina Island.
According to the Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner, they were: Haris Ali, a 33-year-old Fullerton man; Margaret Mary Fenner, 55; Gonzalo Lubel, 34; and Ali Reza Safai, a 73-year-old West Hills man.
According to Federal Aviation Administration records, the plane was registered to Safai, who was previously a flight instructor at now-defunct Santa Monica Aviation based at Santa Monica Airport.
The identity of the final person, a man in his 30s, was withheld pending notification of his relatives.
The twin-engine Beechcraft 95-B55 crashed shortly after it departed from Catalina Airport in Avalon around 8 p.m. Tuesday, Federal Aviation Administration Public Affairs Specialist Rick Breitenfeldt told City News Service.
The aircraft went down about a mile west of the airport. Rescuers found five people in the wreckage, and all were determined to be deceased at the scene.
According to the FlightAware flight-tracking website, the Beechcraft airplane took off from Santa Monica Airport shortly before 6 p.m. Tuesday and arrived at Catalina Airport about 20 minutes later.
Catalina Airport is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., and aircraft operations are generally prohibited at all other times or when the airport is unattended.
An airport official told the Southern California News Group Thursday that the pilot had made arrangements to land at the airfield after operating hours on Tuesday, but did not have approval to take off later that night.
“The FAA and National Transportation Safety Board will investigate,” Breitenfeldt said.
Editor’s note: This story was updated with Lubel’s name.