SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. -- A fiery mid-air collision between a commuter airliner and a private plane killed all 17 people aboard, strewing jagged pieces of metal and flesh over a serene stretch of central California coast.
The Wings West airliner, which had just taken off from San Luis Obispo on a flight to San Francisco about 11 a.m. Friday, was carrying 13 passengers and two crew members. The smaller plane, flying out of nearby Paso Robles, had two people aboard.
'It's the worst I've seen in my 22 years,' said Chief Deputy Antony Wood, who supervised about 50 volunteers in removing bodies from the rural area about 200 miles northwest of Los Angeles.
Wood said the bodies, several of them dismembered, had been sent to a mortuary by evening. An FBI disaster team will begin identifying the dead and notifying relatives today, he said.
The cause of the collision was unknown.
Archie Hanson, a 40-year pilot who flew a helicopter over the crash scene for the Sheriff's Department, said the smaller craft was nearly sheared in half by the airliner.
He said wreckage from the scorched airliner was nearly intact, but metal pieces and 'itty, bitty bits of flesh' from the light plane were scattered across nearly a mile of countryside.
'It's a tragedy of immense proportion,' he said, adding that the bodies of the commuter airline were 'all jumbled up, decapitated.'
The crash site was between Hollister and Charro peaks, off Highway 1 between San Luis Obispo and Morro Bay.
Wings West, based in San Luis Obispo, is a commuter airliner serving several California cities. The downed aircraft, a Beechcraft C-99, originated its flight in Santa Maria, Calif., with five passengers, and picked up eight more in San Luis Obispo.
A spokesman said it was the airline's first accident since it began operations in 1979.
Michael Bush, an accounting employee for Wings West, watched cleanup operations and said, 'Everyone at the office was deeply shocked. Nothing like this has ever happened before. Some people went home early.'
The second plane was identified as a Turbo Commander, a twin-engine business aircraft owned by the Aesthetech Corp., based at the Paso Robles airport. Officials said the plane had recently been sold by a resident of Salem, Ore.
Company officials identified the airliner crew members as Capt. Paul Nebolon, of Rolling Hills, Calif., the pilot, and Deverl Johnson, of Merced, Calif., the co-pilot.
