Mexico Plane Crash Kills Four Americans

Four Americans were killed in a small plane collapse in northwestern Mexico, the president of the volunteer organization Flying Samaritans said.

The plane had been headed on a medical mission in the Mexican state of Baja California and lost radio contact with the ground, said Flying Samaritans President Victor Jones.

The wreckage of a Beechcraft A36 plane and the bodies of the four volunteers were found "after an wide ground, air and water search," Jones said in a statement Saturday.

The wreckage was located in irregular terrain about 30 miles south of Ensenada, Mexico - a city on the Pacific coast - where the plane had departed to San Quintin, Mexico.

Jones said that Mexican authorities discovered four bodies in the wreckage.

Radio contact with the plane was misplaced soon after the pilot reported to the Ensenada airport when it was about 10 miles south of the airport, Jones said.

He recognized the victims as: James Thornton, a plastic surgeon; Graciela Sarmiento, a doctor; Andrew Theil, a non-medical support staffer; and Roger Lyon, the pilot.

Flying Samaritans transports medical and support personnel to clinics in Baja California - which is just south of California, the American state - where they offer free medical services and supplies to those who lack medical care.