Pilot killed in plane crash near Modesto Airport identified
The pilot killed in a plane crash near the Modesto Airport on Wednesday has been identified by the Stanislaus County Coroner’s Office as an 80-year-old Bay Area resident.
William Ellis of Lafayette was flying a Cessna 414 when for unknown reasons it crashed in a field east of the Mitchell Road bridge, north of the Tuolumne River.
The twin-engine plane is registered out of the Bay Area to a company that appears to charter and lease planes, according to Federal Aviation Administration records.
Stanislaus County sheriff’s Detective Raj Singh said multiple people traveling on Mitchell Road witnessed the crash.
“Witnesses said the plane was making a left-handed banked turn and ... it went down almost like a nose dive,” Singh said.
The right northbound lane of Mitchell Road remained closed Thursday morning as officials with the National Transportation Safety Board investigated the crash.
This story was originally published January 19, 2023 at 11:29 AM.
