6 Killed in Tijuana Plane Crash; 2 Californians Die

SAN DIEGO —  Six people, including two Americans, were killed today when a twin-engine plane crashed at the U.S.-Mexico border while on approach to the Tijuana airport, authorities said.

San Diego police Lt. Louis Scanlon said the victims included the Mexican pilot and five businessmen who had been inspecting a salt-processing plant in Baja California.

Three of the victims were from Tokyo and two from Berkeley, Scanlon said. Their names were not released.

The plane disappeared from radar while on approach to Tijuana International Airport, a spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration said.

It crashed 100 yards north of the border and about two miles east of the airport.

“There was no fire, but it broke up pretty good,” Border Patrol spokesman Mike Gregg said.

San Diego police said that six people had been on the plane and that all were killed.

Jesus Macias, an inspector from the Tijuana airport, said the Cessna 340, capable of carrying five passengers and four crew members, had taken off from Hermosillo, about 500 miles southeast of Tijuana. It had made a stop in Guerrero Negro, about 200 miles east of Hermosillo.

The plane went down in the rural Otay Mesa area of San Diego, about 100 yards north of the border and two miles east of the San Ysidro border crossing, Gregg said.