Community Corner

PLANE CRASH: Yucaipa Pilot Identified By Coroner

The single-engine Piper aircraft that crashed Sunday north of Beaumont was registered to Andy Testman of Yucaipa, according to the FAA.

Investigations continued Monday in a fiery, fatal plane crash Sunday morning off Kehl Canyon Road north of Beaumont.

Riverside County coroner's officials identified the pilot who was killed as Anders Emil Testman, 81, of Yucaipa.

The single-engine Piper aircraft was registered to Andy Testman of Yucaipa, according to the FAA. It was destroyed in the crash.

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Testman has a private hangar at Banning Municipal Airport, said Mike Lopez, an airport receptionist.

"Two or three times a week, he liked to fly up to Big Bear and have breakfast," Lopez said Monday.

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The destroyed plane's identifying tail number was released by the FAA Sunday evening.

FAA and NTSB investigators at the crash site Sunday said they intended to have the plane's wreckage removed today and transported to a location for further inspection and incident reconstruction.

A resident who lives east of the crash site said it was foggy and raining Sunday morning.

"Zero visibility," Gilbert Tarr, 50, said Sunday afternoon. "A seagull wouldn't fly in it."

The plane crashed just off Kehl Canyon Road near Calimesa, said Cheri Patterson of Cal Fire-Riverside County. A resident reported the crash at 7:19 a.m., Patterson said.

A California Highway Patrol helicopter crew in an airship known as CHP H-60 located the crash site, Patterson said.

Firefighters worked their way to the plane, which had extensive damage, and found no sign of survivors, Patterson said.

An FAA investigator, Ron Gonzalez, said the initial search for the plane's registration and data plate was inconclusive because "everything's burned."

Ian Gregor of the FAA told Patch the plane crashed under unknown circumstances in hilly terrain around 7:15 a.m. The plane burned after crashing, Gregor said.

"We don't know how many people were on board but believe it was only the pilot, who was killed," Gregor said in an email.

The crash site was near Kehl Canyon Road north of Orchard Street.

Another aircraft registered to Andy Testman of Redlands crashed in December 1998 in Yucaipa, killing the student pilot and flight instructor on board, according to the FAA and NTSB.

The plane in the 1998 crash, a Cessna, was owned and operated by Aerodrome Aircraft Rentals of Redlands, according NTSB records. The probable cause of the 1998 crash was the flight instructor's failure to maintain control of the airplane, the NTSB determined.


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