Jun 30, 2008 10:01 am US/Pacific
BART Officers Mourn Collegue Killed In Plane Crash
(BCN)
Bay Area Rapid Transit police officers Monday are honoring a colleague who was killed in a plane crash in Nevada over the weekend by wearing black mourning strips across their badges, a BART spokesman said.
Craig Wilson, 36, a BART officer since August 2003, was killed along with his 37-year-old wife Michele and their neighbors, Erik and Tanya Nunn, when the plane they were flying in crashed shortly after takeoff near Las Vegas on Saturday afternoon.
Nunn was a candidate for the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors.
The two couples were in Las Vegas to celebrate their respective wedding anniversaries, BART spokesman Linton Johnson said.
The Piper Cherokee plane crashed around 2:45 p.m. about 20 miles northwest of Las Vegas in a mountainous area leading up to a ski slope, said Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor.
No one on the ground was injured, he said.
The plane had taken off from North Las Vegas Airport and was headed to Byron Airport in unincorporated Contra Costa County.
The aircraft struck some power lines on the way down, but what caused it to lose altitude remains under investigation, Gregor said.
The Wilsons leave behind three young children, Johnson said. He said the family has requested privacy and that he could not say how old the children are.
Johnson said he believes the children are staying with their grandparents.
Craig Wilson was most recently assigned to the Pittsburg-Bay Point and Richmond BART lines, Johnson said.
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