Plane Went Down Sunday Near Salinas, CA

An Extra EA-300 (similar aircraft pictured) airplane went down Sunday morning near the Salinas, CA airport, resulting in the fatal injury of both men on board the airplane.

The Monterey County Sheriff's Department told the Associated Press that the county coroner has identified the two as the pilot, George Alfred Mellone III, 32, of Yuma, AZ, and 24-year-old David Gary Ostendorf of Salinas, CA, as the passenger in the plane.

The NTSB said that witnesses reported that the plane executed two rolls of some kind before entering a dive and impacted the ground on Sunday morning. All of the wreckage has reportedly been recovered, and a preliminary report is in the works.

The aircraft is a 1993 Extra Flugzeugbau EA-300 registered to an LLC in Grand Forks, N.D.

Several people in the area reported being waken up by the early-morning flight, which went down just before 0700 local time. NTSB spokesman Peter Knudson said Monday only that the plane had gone down "under unknown circumstances." A preliminary report should be available in about 10 business days, he said.

FMI: www.ntsb.gov