SAN DIEGO (CNS) - Authorities Tuesday released the name of a 21-year-old woman from Bangladesh who died in a weekend plane crash in remote, rugged terrain north of Ramona.
Shaira Noor was a passenger in a Cessna 172 that went down for unknown reasons on a hillside in the rural Pamo Valley area about 2:30 p.m. Sunday, according to sheriff's officials and the San Diego County Medical Examiner's Office.
At the time of the crash, the Cessna, registered to American Aviation Academy, was flying out of Gillespie Field in El Cajon on an instructional flight.
Noor, an airline pilot's daughter who was visiting the United States to learn to fly airplanes, was in the back seat of the Cessna when it went down, according to news accounts.
An instructor and another flight student were in the front of the aircraft and escaped serious injury. The men, ages 25 and 28, hiked out of the immediate vicinity and used their cellphones to call for help, telling authorities they were not sure where they were.
About an hour later, searchers located the downed plane about a mile southwest of Black Mountain, in an area inaccessible to motor vehicles, and rescued the men. Both of them were taken to a hospital to be treated for non- life-threatening trauma.
It was not until late Monday morning that authorities were able to get to the crash site and recover Noor's body. Personnel aboard a large crane helicopter then retrieved the wreckage of the airplane, sheriff's Sgt. David Collins said.
The FAA is investigating the accident.
RELATED
