Shafter crop duster Alfred Fredrick Goss, 68, was killed Wednesday when his 75-year-old World War II airplane crashed in a field west of Bakersfield. Another man, Steven Dean Ballard, 54, of Anchorage, also was killed.
Goss was an air racing enthusiast who was National Champion in his class at the Reno Air Races in 2004. He was a popular pilot at local air shows, usually flying in the same AT-6 Texan plane that crashed Wednesday.
It happened at about 11:34 a.m. Witnesses said the single-engine propeller plane used to train pilots in World War II was doing maneuvers when it suddenly crashed without warning.
There were no injuries on the ground. The crash site is in farm fields about 20 miles due west of downtown Bakersfield, and is just south of the Frito Lay plant on Highway 58.
Crews from the Kern County Fire Department and the Sheriff’s Department were at the crash site. Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board began their investigation Wednesday afternoon.
