Two people killed when a small homemade plane practicing aerobatics crashed in East County are identified.
Christopher Kloman, 49, and Paul Franklin Claerbout, 60, were killed Saturday at 2:36 pm. when the plane went down in a rural neighborhood east of Ramona, according to the county medical examiner's office.
The Bakeng Deuce aircraft the men were flying in has a small, open cockpit and is sold as a kit, said FAA spokesperson Ian Gregor. He also said the plane that went down was performing aerobatics including barrel rolls and sharp turns when its wing fell off, causing the plane to slam into the ground Saturday afternoon.
"A good part of one wing was missing and it was headed straight down like a corkscrew," said witness Arlan Roest. "Then I heard the engine sputtering, then a thump, or a thud... some kind of unnatural sounding sound."
The plane took off from the Ramona Airport. Parts of the plane ended up near homes about a quarter mile from the crash site in Barona Mesa at Mesa Estates Road and Manzanita Ranch Road, CalFire officials said.
Roest said it would take him some time to get over what happened.
"On something like this, it takes a while to process what you've seen... it's not something you see every day," he said.
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No homes were damaged, and no one on the ground was hurt. The FAA is investigating the crash.
