A 67-year-old San Diego test pilot died after his single-engine airplane crashed in the desert north of Los Angeles on Thursday. He was volunteering with the Wounded Warrior Project at the time of his death.
Channing Morse died at the scene of the crash, at about 12:15 p.m. near 165th Street East and East Avenue X in Llano, according to the coroner’s office and the county fire department.
The single-engine Piper PA25 was not carrying any passengers, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. The plane did not catch fire when it went down in a vacant field, the county fire department reported.
Morse’s sister said in a media report that the U.S. Air Force Academy graduate and Vietnam helicopter pilot was giving free glider rides to wounded soldiers when the crash occurred.
He had just launched a glider before the plane went down, his sister said.
— City News Service
