Heat may be factor after separate Cameron Park flights kill 2, injure 4.
Yellow tape cordons the crash site of a small plane near the north end of a Cameron Park Airport runway. Hours earlier, an experimental plane crashed after a takeoff at the airport. Sacramento Bee/Carl Costas
A woman and a man were killed and two people critically injured Thursday in a crash of a light airplane minutes after it took off from Cameron Park Airport.
It was the second plane to crash after taking off from that airport Thursday.
The Sacramento County Coroner's Office identified one of the victims as Patricia A. French, 60, of Sacramento. Coroner's officials said the other was her husband, but could not provide his name or age. The identities of those injured were not released.
Authorities said it wasn't clear what caused either crash, but that the two crashes were not connected.
"It's just a strange coincidence," El Dorado County sheriff's spokesman Lt. Kevin House said. "We never had two crashes in the same day."
Bob Petersen, commander of the Sheriff's Department's air squadron, speculated that the heat may have affected the flights.
"It's not just the altitude," Petersen said. "As temperature goes up, the air gets thinner."
That may not have provided enough lift for the planes, he said.
The first crash occurred about 6:30 a.m. A man and a woman were aboard a small experimental aircraft bound for Idaho, said Deputy Phil Chovanec.
It had taken off at 6:15 a.m. before crashing off Greenwood Lane, just north of Green Valley Road.
Witnesses reported seeing the couple crawl out of the plane. They were in stable condition in a local hospital Thursday, authorities said.
Federal records show the plane -- a single-engine Kitfox -- is registered to Fitt C. Lowell of Cameron Park. No one answered the door Thursday evening at the address listed on the registration.
The fatal crash occurred about six hours after the first crash, a few minutes after takeoff at 12:35 p.m., House said.
The Beechcraft A36 was bound for Ensenada, Mexico, according to Ian Gregor, a spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration. It crashed about 200 yards north of the runway in an open field, authorities said.
House said the wheels of the aircraft, with four people aboard, touched the ground a few times before the plane struck a hill and broke apart.
Patricia French was taken to UC Davis Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead about 9:30 p.m. Her husband died in El Dorado County, according to officials. The injured were taken to area hospitals, House said.
Aircraft registration records list the white single-engine A36's owner as Aerometals, an El Dorado Hills-based company. Attempts to reach company owners were not successful Thursday.
About 50 to 100 planes take off from Cameron Park Airport on a busy day, Petersen said. About two-thirds of the residents who live close to the airport own a plane, he said.
Planes parked in neighborhood driveways are a common sight. The streets are wide enough to accommodate aircraft taxiing from home to the airport.
Vidolt Menzel, a former Cameron Park resident, said residents would mention from time to time the proximity of the airport.
In July 2004, Menzel's home on Fairway Drive was extensively damaged when a helicopter crashed. Menzel has since moved to Shingle Springs.
Menzel said that when he saw reports of Thursday's crashes, he wondered when authorities are going to halt takeoffs of experimental aircraft from the airport.
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