Authorities identify man killed in small plane crash near Woodlake
Michael Thomas Hill, 74, died when his Mooney M20J went down just beyond Woodlake Airport’s runway, leaving investigators with a fiery crash and many unanswered questions.
Authorities have identified the man killed when a small plane crashed near Woodlake as Michael Thomas Hill, 74, of San Bernardino County. Hill was the pilot of the Mooney M20J that went down Saturday morning near Road 204 and Avenue 336, just beyond the runway at Woodlake Airport.
The crash happened around 11 a.m. and drew deputies, fire crews and other emergency responders into a rural open-country search and recovery operation. No one else was injured, but the impact was immediate beyond the fatality itself, with local reporting indicating the crash caused a power outage in the area.
Officials said Hill had taken off from Woodlake Airport, a public general aviation field on the south edge of town, before the aircraft crashed a short distance beyond the runway. The city says the airport’s runway, Runway 7/25, is 3,000 feet long and 50 feet wide. Airport listings note there is no control tower and no published instrument procedures, details that help explain why a departure accident there can unfold close to homes, orchards and utility lines rather than at a large commercial airport.
Witnesses recorded video of the fiery crash, and some described the plane appearing to stall and lose power before impact. Those accounts, if they are borne out by the wreckage and flight records, will be central to the next phase of the investigation. The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating, and federal officials are also reviewing records as they work to determine what caused the aircraft to go down.
For families and neighbors in the South Valley, the identification of Hill turns a breaking aviation accident into a personal loss. It also shifts attention to the slower work of federal investigators, who must piece together the final moments of a crash from debris, witness video, airport records and aircraft history. In rural parts of Tulare County, that process can leave residents waiting long after the smoke clears for a clear answer on why a plane fell from the sky and whether anything could have prevented it.
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