SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS RADIO) – A UC Santa Cruz employee and a Merced County couple are confirmed to have died when two planes crashed at the Watsonville airport last week.
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The Santa Cruz County Sheriff-Coroner's Office announced on Monday that 32-year-old Santa Cruz resident Stuart Camenson and a Winton couple – Carl Kruppa, 72, and Nannette Plett-Kruppa, 67 – died when their planes collided at the Watsonville Municipal Airport last Thursday.
Officials didn't say who was piloting which plane in the crash, which also killed a dog aboard one of the flights.
Camenson worked as an information systems analyst at the university, officials told KION on Monday and confirmed to KCBS Radio on Tuesday morning. He previously graduated from UC Santa Cruz with degrees in chemistry and Earth sciences.
"We are deeply saddened by this tragedy and mourn the loss of Stuart Camenson, Carl Kruppa and Nannette Plett-Kruppa," the university said in a statement to KCBS Radio, adding that the school's "thoughts are with their family and friends during this difficult time."
Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board officials are still investigating the circumstances surrounding the crash.
A single-engine Cessna 152 and a twin-engine Cessna 340 crashed into one another while one plane tried to land and the other was "operating in the traffic pattern," NTSB Air Safety Investigator Fabian Salazar told reporters last Friday.
Watsonville Municipal Airport doesn’t have an air traffic control tower, meaning pilots must communicate with another when attempting to land. Officials said it would be "weeks" before they knew if the planes radioed each other before the crash.
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