SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - A pilot has been found dead in a small airplane that crashed in a remote area of Southern California.
The Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Office says authorities received a report of a mayday call involving engine trouble around 10 p.m. Thursday and wreckage was spotted at 4:30 a.m. Friday near Don Victor Trail.
The body was spotted around 7 a.m., but the aircraft's precarious position prevented responders from immediately extricating it.
Authorities do not know the pilot's identity or circumstances of the crash, including where the flight originated and its destination.
The mayday triggered a response by Santa Barbara and Ventura counties and the Coast Guard because it was not certain whether the plane went down on land or the ocean. Emergency locater transmissions narrowed the search to north of Jameson Lake.