Funviralpark Officials say the former mayor of Santa Monica, Calif., died after a small plane crash landed on a beach in a coastal community and flipped over.
Santa Monica, California — The former mayor of Santa Monica, Calif., has died after his small plane flipped over after it crash-landed on a beach in coastal California, officials said.
Rex Minter was a passenger on a single-engine Cessna flight that took off from Santa Monica airport around 3 p.m. Thursday, bound for Malibu. The pilot was taken to hospital.
The city of Santa Monica and current mayor Griem Davis have separately confirmed Minter’s death.
According to flight records, the pilot reported engine trouble and attempted to return to the airport, but then decided to make an emergency landing, KCBS-TV reported.
In a recording played on KTTV-TV, air traffic controllers warned pilots to land at their own risk.
“I wish I had another option,” replied the pilot.
The video shows the plane was descending to land on the coast, but hit water on the shoreline and flipped over south of the Santa Monica Pier.
Firefighters removed two people from the plane, one of whom was in cardiac arrest, officials said.
Minter was elected to the Santa Monica City Council in 1955, served as mayor from 1963 to 1967, and later served as a city attorney for Arcadia and a judge on the Los Angeles County Superior Court, according to a statement on the city’s website. there is
Davis said in a tweet that he has passed on the city’s condolences to Minter’s family.
