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Five bodies found in small plane that crashed in California


    (Reuters) - Officials in California pulled five bodies on Sunday from a small plane that crashed in the central part of the state, police said.

    The bodies were found in the wreckage of a small plane that crashed in an almond orchard in the city of Bakersfield, some 115 miles northwest of Los Angeles, around 7:30 p.m. on Saturday (0330 GMT Sunday), said Kern County Sheriff Sergeant Mark King.

    Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor said a single-engine Piper PA32 aircraft had disappeared from radar about 10 miles south of Bakersfield around 4 p.m. while en route to the Henderson Executive Airport near Las Vegas, Nevada.

    Officials at Los Angeles International Airport had advised local authorities that a pilot had issued a mayday call before falling out of contact near Bakersfield.

    The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board have begun an investigation, officials said.

    (Reporting by Curtis Skinner in San Francisco and Scott Malone in Boston; Editing by David Holmes, Bernard Orr)