BIG BEAR – (INT) – A pilot was found dead Monday in the wreckage of his small plane at Fawnskin.

The single-engine plane came down near the Grout Bay picnic area on the edge of a dry lake bed.

The pilot, an adult male, was the sole occupant.

The aircraft remained largely intact. There was no immediate indication about the pilot’s intended route or the cause of the crash. The plane had just taken off from the Big Bear Airport.

The incident came on the same day the wreckage of another plane was removed from a heavily-forested area of the nearby Arctic Circle.

That plane came down last week at Glory Ridge, just off Highway 18. Three people survived the crash.

Story Date: October 23, 2014