Bodies Found in California Plane Wreckage

"The aircraft is in a debris field...in an almond orchard, so it's going to take a lot of footwork to conduct the investigation", said Sgt. Mark King with the Kern County Sheriff's Office.

Rescuers pulled five bodies from the wreckage of a small plane that crashed into an orchard in central California after vanishing from radar, local and federal authorities said Sunday.

The aircraft with tail number N36402 is registered to RAD Aviation of San Jose, Calif. It appears that that plane has been owned by the same company since it was built in 2006. Coroner's officials were identifying them.

The apparent first word of the plane's distress came about 4:26 p.m. Saturday when Los Angeles Air Traffic Control advised it had received a mayday from a single-engine plane, according to a sheriff's news release.

King said bad weather may have been a factor.

The plane, Piper PA32, disappeared from radar about 10 miles south of Bakersfield around 4 p.m. while flying from San Jose's Reid-Hillview Airport to Las Vegas's Henderson Executive Airport, said Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor.

A National Transportation Safety Board investigator also was on site Sunday, Gregor said.