Three people were airlifted with injuries from the wreckage of a small plane that crashed in a rugged forest area near Big Bear Lake on Thursday afternoon.
The San Bernardino County Fire Department and the Sheriff’s Department responded to a report of the downed aircraft just after 2 p.m.
The plane was 12 miles west of Big Bear Airport, west of Big Bear Dam, according to the a tweet from the U.S. Forest Service.
The aircraft was found in a forested area off State Route 18 closed to Forest Road 2N15 near Glory Ridge (map) in the San Bernardino National Forest.
After the plane was located, paramedics were lowered from a Sheriff’s Department helicopter. Three injured passengers were hoisted out.
Rescuers could be seen treating patients on the ground near the crash site, then putting them onto stretchers to be hoisted into the helicopter overhead.
Above, on Highway 18, the patients were treated on the road. Two of them held hands while first responders worked on a third patient, aerial video showed.
The third patient, who appeared to be more severely injured, was then taken via CHP helicopter to Loma Linda University Medical Center. The other two patients were loaded into ambulances, aerial video showed.
The plane’s tail number showed it was fixed-wing single-engine Cessna 172S manufactured in 2000 and registered to a Tustin-based company called Sohail Air Ventures LLC.
A statement from the Federal Aviation Administration said the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board were investigating the crash.
A SigAlert was in effect for Highway 18 in the area, according to the California Highway Patrol’s traffic incident page. The roadway reopened about 3:45 p.m.