Posted for <n98pb@sbcglobal.net>:

Two Killed in Riverside County Small Plane Crash

Posted: May 30, 2008 01:46 PM PDT

KESQ.com News Services

An "experimental" airplane crashed Friday in a field near French Valley
Airport, instantly killing both people aboard the aircraft, authorities
said.

The Lancair "Legacy" two-seater airplane went down at 11:53 a.m. about two
miles north of the airfield, said Ian Gregor of the Federal Aviation
Administration.

The field where the aircraft ended up is just north of a Moose Lodge
building on Winchester Road, north of Benton Road, in the French Valley area
of Murrieta.

The plane hit the ground nose first and upside down, and the two people on
board were killed on impact by blunt force trauma, fire officials said.David
Borel, who was working in his vineyard south of the field, said he saw the
plane overhead and assumed it was headed for the airport, then heard a
revving sound from the engine.

"It looked like it just rolled and then it did a nosedive," he said. Nathan
Abeel, 25, of Temecula, was working outside about a half-mile from the crash
scene when he saw the airplane head south toward the airport, then plunge to
the ground.

"I was thinking he was just doing a barrel roll, but as soon as he went
upside down, he went down," Abeel said.

Bill Eckburg, 61, of Murrieta, was about a mile away on his property when he
saw the plane roll so the cockpit was down.

The plane did not explode, and when it hit the ground it made a "thud," he
said.