Accident Kills Both Men On Board

The NTSB is investigating last week's crash of a Lear 24-B in the California desert near Chino, but there's little to go on. The high-speed impact claimed the lives of both crew members on board, dug a deep crater in a San Bernardino County ridge and spread debris for a quarter-mile. The aircraft had been on a flight from Chino to Idaho, according to the FAA.

"The captain said he needed to return to Chino," Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Donn Walker said. "The pilot then declared an emergency. He was at 24,000 feet when we lost radar and radio contact with him at ... 9:11 am"

Daniel Costa, 21, looked up when he heard the jet overhead Tuesday morning. Then he didn't hear anything."I didn't hear the engines no more," he said. "Then it started going straight (and level) again, like a normal airplane for about 10 seconds. And then it dropped straight to the ground at (about) a 45-degree angle."

Costa said the Lear disappeared behind a ridge. "Seconds after that," Costa said, "I seen a mushroom cloud ... and heard a 'boom.'"

There was precious little that survived the impact. "There's nothing of any size that we can see. It's all very small pieces," Smith said. "There were two people on board - a pilot and a co-pilot - and there were no survivors. The crash site is on a hillside, just below a ridge line."

Neither crew member has yet been identified, according to the FAA.

FMI: www.faa.gov