This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Classification: Death Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/JW.2ADE/7689 Message Board Post: Pilot Killed in Plane Crash Near Gorman Paratroopers from March Field and members of the Civil Air Patrol aided in the dramatic search for a lost monoplane over the weekend. The search ended at 4 p.m. Sunday when Deputy Coroner Ross Jones and a sheriff's party reached the scene of the crash on the south side of Double Mountain, midway between Rosamond and Lebec. The battered body of the pilot, William Glen Sweitzer, 36, of Phoenix, Ariz., was found in the wreckage of the plane. It was the first air crash fatality in Kern County for 1953. Planned Bakersfield Stop Sweitzer left San Bernardino at 11 a.m. Saturday, filing a flight plan for San Arda, with a stop for gasoline at Bakersfield. His last radio message was received as he passed, Palmdale and flew into an area of high winds. Investigators believe the light plane was caught in a down-draft and crashed at the 6,000-foot level. The Civil Air Patrol was called to help the search at 7 a.m. Sunday. Seven of its aircraft began a systematic combing of the rugged area northwest of Palmdale. At 9:40 a.m. W. O. Arthur Weis of Bakersfield Squadron 113 reported sighting the wreckage and flying low enough to make positive identification from the letters and numbers on the wings. With the volunteer pilot were two observers, Henry Washburn and Russell Ford, both privates from Shafter Squadron 111. March Field authorities arranged for a drop of three paratroopers on the 6,000-foot crest. They reported Sweitzer's death and awaited the arrival of th~ ground party led by Sheriff’s Sergeant Harold B. Miller of Mojave Substation. With the latter group were Jones of the Coroner's office and Deputy Sheriff Edward Miner and Joe Johnson, the latter from the identification bureau. The ground party was able to drive to within a mile of the crash. "From there it was straight up," reported Jones. The body was brought to the O'Donnell Funeral Home in Mojave, pending funeral arrangements. Sweitzer's wife was advised of the tragedy during the afternoon. The body was flown to Phoenix, Ariz., for burial. Posted by East Kern Genealogical Society Courtesy of Mojave Desert News California City, Kern, CA Published: 26 Mar 1953