Lear jet crashes in mountains near San Diego

A Lear jet believed to be carrying five people crashed in the mountains near the Mexican border early Sunday, shortly after taking off from a small air field in San Diego, the Federal Aviation Administration reported.
"The pilot's flight plan said five people were on board," said FAA operations officer Larri Frelow, who added the flight was bound for Albuquerque.

It couldn't immediately be confirmed if anyone was killed, but Frelow said emergency workers flying over the crash site in a helicopter reported seeing body parts.

The identities of the pilot and passengers were not immediately available.

The plane had just taken off from Brown Field in San Diego when it went down about 120 a.m. in an isolated, mountainous area approximately two miles east of the airstrip.

Emergency personnel from San Diego fire and law enforcement agencies were hiking to the largely inaccessible area near the border, Frelow said. A San Diego County sheriff's spokeswoman said it would likely take the hikers several hours to get there.

The plane was a lifeguard aircraft used for transporting medical patients, but no patients were believed to be aboard when it crashed, Frelow said.

A message left at Brown Field was not immediately returned.

The airstrip just north of the border is used as a port of entry for private aircraft arriving in California from Mexico and by military and law enforcement planes.

The cause of the crash was not immediately known.

Fonte: Associated Press - 24/10/2004