Two men died after a small plane crashed near Lake Berryessa Monday morning, officials said.
The Federal Aviation Administration said the plane was a single-engine Icon A5 which crashed under unknown circumstances. The two who died were the only ones on board, officials said. [[421653803, C]]
The Napa County Sheriff Coroner's Facility has identified the victims has Jon Murray Karkow, 55, and Cagri Sever, 41. Karkow was the pilot in commane of the plane when it crashed, officials said. Both Karkow and Sever are employees of ICON Aircraft, based in Vacaville.
"Both of these were employees and part of the family," said Steen Strand, ICON co-founder. "It's a devastating event for the company today."
ICON aircraft has strong Silicon Valley roots. Founder Kirk Hawkins is a Stanford graduate, and several valley venture capitalists are backing the company.
It's aircraft has been widely regarded as a well-designed. Tracy Vaniwarden works on Icon A5s at Nut Tree Airport in Vacaville and has flown them.
"It's extremely safe," Vaniwarden said. "Even with engine failure, you can land on the water, so there's no great risk there. So to see the photos that I saw, something catastrophic happened."
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Flight instructor Max Trescott put together a map of Lake Berryessa for pilots, pointing out the safe areas and the dangerous ones.
"It's a very safe area as long as they stay in the northern two-thirds of the lake," Trescott said. "If you're down in the southern part of the lake, things are quite tight. There are a lot of wires and other obstructions."
Lake Berryessa is located less than 20 miles north of Napa.
The FAA and NTSB are investigating the crash, and officials said a final report could be months away.
