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Toyota engineer, an experienced pilot, was at the controls of experimental craft
Search crews on Sunday morning located the wreckage of an experimental plane that crashed into the ocean off San Pedro, southwest of Los Angeles, on Saturday, killing the pilot, a top engineer for Toyota.
After sonar spotted the submerged plane, divers from the Los Angeles County Fire Department videotaped it to aid a crash investigation, according to Mark Savage, a department spokesman. Savage said plans are being made to retrieve the wreckage, which was found about 70 feet below the surface.
The Saturday afternoon crash killed David Hermance, 59, from Huntington Beach (Orange County). His body was found floating in the water shortly afterward.
Hermance was Executive Engineer for Advanced Technology Vehicles at Toyota's technical center in the Los Angeles area. He played a key role in unveiling to the American market such cars as the Prius, which runs on a combination of gasoline and batteries.
