Plane Crash at Cameron Park Airport

Yellow tape cordons the crash site of a small plane near the north end of a Cameron Park Airport runway. Hours earlier, an experimental plane crashed after a takeoff at the airport. Sacramento Bee/Carl Costas

A woman and a man were killed and two people critically injured Thursday in a crash of a light airplane minutes after it took off from Cameron Park Airport.

It was the second plane to crash after taking off from that airport Thursday.

The Sacramento County Coroner's Office identified one of the victims as Patricia A. French, 60, of Sacramento. Coroner's officials said the other was her husband, but could not provide his name or age. The identities of those injured were not released.

Authorities said it wasn't clear what caused either crash, but that the two crashes were not connected.

"It's just a strange coincidence," El Dorado County sheriff's spokesman Lt. Kevin House said. "We never had two crashes in the same day."

Bob Petersen, commander of the Sheriff's Department's air squadron, speculated that the heat may have affected the flights.

"It's not just the altitude," Petersen said. "As temperature goes up, the air gets thinner."

That may not have provided enough lift for the planes, he said.

he first crash occurred about 6:30 a.m. A man and a woman were aboard a small experimental aircraft bound for Idaho, said Deputy Phil Chovanec.

It had taken off at 6:15 a.m. before crashing off Greenwood Lane, just north of Green Valley Road.

Witnesses reported seeing the couple crawl out of the plane. They were in stable condition in a local hospital Thursday, authorities said.

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