Airplane Was Burning Before Crashing in Banning, NTSB Says

An airplane that crashed last month near Banning Municipal Airport was on fire before it hit the ground, the National Transportation Safety Board said.

The pilot and sole occupant, William Hunter, 55, of Aguila, Arizona, died in the Nov. 22 crash, the Riverside County Coroner’s Office said.

The home-built experimental airplane was en route from Aguila to Banning when it went down at about 6:24 p.m.

A witness told investigators that he was driving on the 10 Freeway when he saw smoke and fire coming from the back of the plane, the NTSB said in the preliminary report it released Wednesday, Dec. 14. The witness said that the airplane was in a stable flight path as it crossed the freeway. The fire grew as the plane approached the airport, the report said, before it banked to the right and crashed.

The report did not list the cause of the fire.