Warbird Information Exchange

A plane used by the California Department of Forestry crashed in the Tulare County foothills this afternoon, killing the pilot and passenger.

CDF says the passenger was a CDF employee from Porterville. The pilot was not employed by CDF. The identifies of the victims have not been released.

CDF contracted the 0V-10 model aircraft from Porterville Air Attack for use as a fire spotter.

The plane went down near a ridge by the Mountain Home area northeast of Springville.

CDF said firefighters were fighting a small forest fire in the area and the plane was flying over the blaze before it crashed. It is not clear if the plane was involved in the firefighting effort. The crash ignited a separate fire that burned about three acres.

It took about 75 CDF firefighters several hours to reach the crash site, which is in rugged terrain.

Flags have been ordered to fly at half-staff at CDF offices.