Victims of Tahoe crash identified

Thursday, Sept. 7, 2000 | 10:27 a.m.

Dental records and other means were needed to confirm the identifies of Jeff Needham, 43; his wife, Maria, 30; Marc Michelsen, 48; and Todd Johnson, 27. All four were killed.

Authorities said Needham was piloting the single-propeller Piper Malibu when it crashed shortly after takeoff.

The six-seater plane left Lake Tahoe Airport at 3:48 p.m. Friday afternoon. Three minutes into the flight and about a half mile from the runway, it turned east and went into a dive.

The aircraft slammed into a cluster of trees on a vacant lot and burst into flames near two homes.

Needham, owner of Cell Com, a telecommunication business, intended first to fly his plane to Las Vegas to drop off Michelsen and Johnson, who were on their way to Arizona to spend the Labor Day weekend with friends, authorities said.

Needham and his wife then expected to continue on to San Diego to visit family.

Both Needham and Michelsen, who owned a construction company, were experienced pilots. Johnson had worked for Michelsen.

Marc Murphy, an air traffic controller working the tower when the plane crashed, said several other planes were not allowed to take off at that time because of weather conditions.

But for small, privately owned planes like the Piper Malibu, he said, conditions were good enough that the decision to fly was left up to the pilot.

The El Dorado County Sheriff's Department reported that the sky was cloudy and there were rain squalls Friday afternoon.

The cause of the crash remains under investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board.