2 victims of Southern California plane crash identified by relatives

RIVERSIDE - Family members have identified two women who survived the fiery Southern California crash of a small plane in a residential neighborhood and the three people who were killed.

Christy Crown told Bay Area NBC affiliate KNTV late Tuesday that her sister-in-law Stacey Pierce is among the survivors while her sister-in-law's parents died in the crash.

Brandon Farelas of San Jose told KGO-TV that his mother Sylvia survived and his 22-year-old sister Adine is among the dead.

The group was returning from a cheerleading competition on a rainy Monday afternoon when their plane plummeted into a residential neighborhood in the city of Riverside east of Los Angeles, killing three people and critically wounding two who were ejected.

Authorities have not identified the victims, who traveled to attend a cheerleading event where the daughters of the two crash survivors competed.

The Union School District students returned safely from the trip, superintendent Denise Clay wrote in a letter to families.

The twin-engine Cessna 310 crashed shortly after 4:40 p.m. Monday, igniting an inferno that destroyed two homes and slightly damaged two others.

The tail number of the aircraft was N1246G, according to a government official with knowledge of the investigation who spoke on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to release the information until next-of-kin have been notified.

Federal records show that number is assigned to a twin-engine Cessna 310 registered to Nouri Hijazi of San Jose.

Hijazi and his wife Dana were killed in the crash, while their daughter Stacey is in critical condition, Crown said.

"He was an extremely experienced pilot, which was his hobby, his passion," Crown said in a statement to KNTV (http://bit.ly/2mddQCk).

"We want to say how incredibly devastated and heartbroken we are and still trying to process everything," the statement said.

Farelas said his mother, Sylvia, called him before Monday's flight and said she was worried about the rainy weather, KGO-TV reported (http://abc7ne.ws/2lTn1XM ) late Tuesday.

Riverside Fire Chief Michael Moore said the plane had just taken off from Riverside Municipal Airport, less than a mile away, bound for San Jose after a weekend cheerleading competition at Disney California Adventure Park.

Moore did not provide the name of the cheerleading competition, but the Jr. USA Nationals for girls 15 and under was held at Disney California Adventure Park over the weekend. Officials with the competition did not immediately return calls Tuesday.

One of the women survivors suffered burns on 90 percent of her body and was found moaning under debris in a smoke-filled bedroom of a burning home and was lifted out a window, fire Capt. Tyler Reynolds said.

Weather in the area 60 miles east of Los Angeles had included rain, but there were no immediate indications of what caused the crash.

NTSB investigators will examine environmental conditions, including the weather, along with the pilot's history, flight records and the physical components of the aircraft, said Stephen Stein, an air safety investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board.

Despite the massive fire, no one on the ground was hurt.

Juan Cortes, 42, and his son, Jonathan, were installing fencing when they saw a low-flying plane make an awkward tilt and go straight down into a neighborhood.

The pair raced to the scene in a truck to try to help. People were screaming in the street, and the elder Corte said he saw a woman pulled from the flames. "She was alive because she was screaming, 'My daughter! My daughter!" he recalled Tuesday.

After hearing a loud sound that shook her house like an earthquake, 38-year-old Traci Zamora rushed outside. Around the corner, she saw a house engulfed in flames, and one of the victims emerged.

"She just came crawling right out of it onto the front lawn," she said. "Her lower body was on fire."

Hector Jimenez, 19, was playing video games at home when he heard a loud boom and saw black smoke.

"It's just sad that it happened here," he said. "It makes me nervous living around an airport. That's one of my worst fears, having this happen."

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AP writers Christopher Weber, John Antczak, Michael Balsamo, Amanda Lee Myers and Andrew Dalton in Los Angeles and Amy Taxin in Santa Ana, California, contributed to this report. Researcher Rhonda Shafner contributed from New York.