Tom Hastings, 65, his daughter Amber Hill, 27, her husband Jacob Hill, 25, and Amber’s daughter Madison Hastings Saxelby, 9, were identified as the victims
Their small plane crashed near a mountain town in Southern California Sunday
Plane crashed in remote canyon about 40 miles north of downtown Los Angeles
Single-engine plane was a Cirrus VK-30, and said to be a experimental aircraft
The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating further
The four family members who were killed over the weekend when their small, home-built plane crashed near a mountain town in Southern California, have been identified.
Tom Hastings, 65, was piloting the plane and three of his relatives were on board.
His daughter Amber Hill, 27, her husband Jacob Hill, 25, and Amber’s daughter Madison Hastings Saxelby, 9, were all killed when the plane went down Sunday morning.
The private plane crashed in a remote canyon about 40 miles north of downtown Los Angeles, according to the Los Angeles County Fire Department.
‘They do this trip every couple months,’ the pilot’s son Jake Hastings told the Los Angeles Times. ‘A routine, normal thing.’
Jake said the flight from Las Vegas should have taken only an hour, and when he hadn’t heard from his family, he became worried.
A short time later he said he turned on the news and saw photos of the plane crash.
Jake said the plane hit power lines before it broke apart and crashed about four miles from Agua Dulce Air Park.
Photos showed debris strewn throughout dry brush alongside a dirt road near Agua Dulce.
According to Federal Aviation Administration records, the single-engine plane was a Cirrus VK-30 classified as an experimental aircraft.
The plane was registered to Thomas G. Hastings, who built the plane in 1999, the online registry said.
Jake said his father had spent nearly a decade building the plane in their garage.
Thomas Hastings was an avid and experienced pilot who obtained his pilot license at the age of 15.
His son told the Times that his dad had dreams of becoming a fighter pilot, but ended up working as a mechanical engineer instead.
Thomas Hastings was about a year away from retiring from his job at Haas Automation.
Jake Hastings said his sister, Amber Hill, was an eyelash-extension artist who enjoyed family vacations with her husband and daughter.
Hill’s daughter, Madison, was known as the ‘mad scientist,’ at school, which was a nickname she earned after making clay objects and edible slime concoctions, according to the Times.
The plane had undergone its annual inspection a month or so ago, the pilot’s son said.
FAA spokesman Allen Kenitzer confirmed the aircraft was a Cirrus, but he did not immediately have additional details about the crash.
The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board will investigate, he said.
