Raley’s executive, pilot killed in Northern California plane crash

GALT  — An executive and a pilot for the Raley’s Supermarkets chain had been killed when their aircraft crashed in an orchard in Northern California on Sunday, authorities explained.

The Beechcraft Baron 58 went down shortly right before 9 a.m. Sunday in a marshy spot at an almond orchard close to Galt, south of Sacramento, Sacramento County authorities stated.

Firefighters had to wade and swim to arrive at the airplane, authorities reported.

Two gentlemen were pronounced dead at the scene. The county coroner’s workplace determined them as Kenneth Mueller, 56, of El Dorado Hills and 68-year-previous Richard Conte of Orangevale.

Mueller was the main economical officer and Conte the chief pilot for Raley’s Supermarkets, a West Sacramento-dependent chain with 128 stores in Northern California and Nevada below various manufacturers.

“Our corporation is deeply saddened and heartbroken,” the organization stated in a statement.

The flight wasn’t on organization business enterprise, Raley’s spokeswoman Chelsea Slight informed the Sacramento Bee.

She stated Mueller experienced been with the company for 25 decades. Conte had been the firm’s main pilot for eight yrs.

The plane went down a lot less than 20 minutes following taking off from Tracy Municipal Airport and experienced built past stops at San Andreas and Modesto right before the final flight, the Bee described, citing flight tracking support FlightAware.

It was not immediately clear who was piloting the aircraft when it crashed.