All 4 Identified in Burbank Plane Crash

Four men killed in a fiery plane crash in Burbank last week were identified Tuesday as Los Angeles-area pilots, the coroner’s office reported.

The victims were identified through dental records as Jeffrey Fader, 28, of Canyon Country, who was in the pilot’s seat of the single-engine plane when it crashed at 8:20 p.m. Thursday on a construction access road at Burbank Airport; Lawrence W. Anderson Jr., 30, a certified flight instructor from Thousand Oaks; Ingvar Gronberg, 27, of Burbank; and George Kraft, 33, of Marina del Rey, coroner’s spokesman Bob Dambacher said.

The cause of the crash remained under investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board. The four victims, all experienced pilots, had just taken off on a training flight to Santa Barbara when they tried to return to Burbank Airport and crashed, officials said.

Gary Mucho, regional director of the NTSB, said Fader was in the pilot’s seat and Anderson was in the co-pilot’s seat but it was unclear which man was in control when it crashed. One of the pilots radioed that they had an emergency but did not specify what the problem was.

Mucho said investigators found no problem with the Piper Cherokee’s engine after an examination was completed Monday. However, he said investigators have not concluded that pilot error was the cause of the crash.

“We don’t know what it was yet,” Mucho said. “We are still looking.”