Four bodies recovered from missing flight to Oakland

Crews on Friday recovered the four people killed when a medical flight crashed earlier in the day in Humboldt County while headed from Crescent City to Oakland.

The four fatalities were confirmed to be three women and one man, according to the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office.

The ages and identities of the victims were being withheld Friday pending identification and notification of next of kin, according to the sheriff’s office.

A Cal-Ore Life Flight spokesperson said in a prepared statement Friday:

“This is one of the saddest moments in our history. We have been told there were no survivors.”

A Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office search and rescue team located the crash site around 10 a.m. Friday on the property of a private timber company in the unincorporated Crannell area of north Arcata.

The Piper Cheyenne plane associated with Reach Air Medical Services and Cal-Ore Life Flight left Crescent City Airport for Oakland International Airport at 12:29 a.m.

Four people on board including a pilot, a medic, a nurse and a patient, Cal-Ore officials said.

The plane went missing near Arcata after the pilot reported smoke in the cockpit around 1 a.m., according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

The pilot notified air traffic controllers he was going to return to Crescent City.

Cal-Ore officials said they lost contact with the pilot at 1:05 a.m.

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