Updated 10:15 a.m. with additional information.
We have more information about a plane crash in Twentynine Palms yesterday. Sheriff’s deputies and paramedics were called to the area of Highway 62 and Mojave Road at 3:13 p.m. for a plane crash. According to Sheriff’s Deputy Wayne Greer, Donald Richie, 67, of Cedar Park, Texas, was flying a 1979 single-engine Lake LA-4 200 airplane from Petaluma to Texas and had stopped at the Twentynine Palms airport to refuel. After taking off, his plane couldn’t gain altitude, and Richie said he was trying to return to the airport. Greer said when Richie realized he wouldn’t make it to the runway, he thought about landing on Highway 62, until he saw the powerlines on the north side of the highway. Richie then decided to make an emergency landing in the open desert west of the airport. His plane collided with a stop sign and other business signs, and came to rest upside down. He was able to get out of the plane on his own before deputies arrived, and suffered minor injuries. He was taken by Morongo Basin Ambulance to Desert Regional in Palm Springs. About 40 gallons of fuel leaked from the plane; the county’s hazardous materials team also responded to coordinate the clean-up.
