Speed patrol pilot's plane crashes
A highway patrol pilot flying to work monitoring highway speeders was killed when his aircraft crashed in Southern California, officials said Saturday.
Officer Danny Benavides, 39, was flying solo when his plane went down about 9:30 a.m. Friday in a desert area near Highway 78 and Split Mountain Road in Imperial County, the patrol said in a news release.
It said the patrol communication center lost contact with the pilot and called a regional search that involved both military and law enforcement personnel.
Wreckage of the aircraft was spotted about 4 p.m. Benavides, a 13-year patrol officer, was pronounced dead at the scene.
The cause of the crash hasn't been determined and an investigation is under way.
The release said Benavides had just finished working one speed detail and was en route to another on Interstate 8 when he crashed.
Benavides had been assigned to the patrol's border division air operations unit as a pilot.
-- Associated Press
By
Michael Bolden
|
May 8, 2010; 4:11 PM ET
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Posted by: oldtimehockey | May 8, 2010 7:50 PM | Report abuse
There seems to be several articles posted recently that have nothing to do with local traffic issues. Why?
I can see a posting about an Amtrak accident in Pennsylvania or New Jersey because that can have a trickle down effect on our local commuter rail. But articles about a Chicago rail chief being hit by a train, a pedestrian being struck in Lewes, DE, to name a couple? What do these have to do with our local transportation issues?
Posted by: ceebee2 | May 9, 2010 12:13 PM | Report abuse
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As a native Californian now living here, what does this story, albeit tragic, have anything to do with us here in DC? Signs saying "Speed patrolled by Aircraft" signs are common throughout Southern California. As far as I know, no local jurisdictions routinely use aircraft for that purpose.