Mother, son die in plane crash
By MARC CABRERA
The Monterey Herald
A mother and son from the Monterey Peninsula were killed Nov. 15 when their airplane crashed into a lagoon along the Sea of Cortez off Baja
California.
Marjorie Thornburgh, 71, of Carmel and her son, businessman Donald Thornburgh, 45, of Carmel Valley, had been vacationing at Donald Thornburgh's beach
house in San Luis Gonzaga, 220 miles south of the border.
Richard Thornburgh, Marjorie's husband and Donald's father, said Monday that the four-seat Cessna 182 piloted by his son was taking off from an
airport at San Felipe when the plane rose too suddenly and stalled, plunging into a lagoon.
Richard Thornburgh said the wind was blowing at 35 knots, which may have contributed to the crash.
He said the commander of the airport said a likely cause could have been the plane's sliding seats, which rest on a rail and can slide back and forth
when they are not locked in place.
Richard Thornburgh said the thrust of the takeoff may have forced the seats to jerk back, causing either the pilot or the passenger to grab the
controls by accident, and forcing the plane to shoot upward into the wind.
"The best estimate is that the seat locks came loose," said Thornburgh, who also is a pilot, as was Marjorie Thornburgh.
"When you're in a small airplane, you're sitting in a seat that slides back and forth on a rail. If it doesn't lock down, you're in trouble."
The remains were recovered from the lagoon and were sent to a Mexicali mortuary, where they were cremated Saturday, Thornburgh said.
The ashes were being shipped to the family's Montana home.
Donald Thornburgh owned two Midas automotive stores in Salinas and another in Seaside.
He had been a pilot for 20 years and had logged about 2,500 hours of flight time, most of it in the Cessna, which he had owned since 1984, said his
father.
"He knew that plane, that's for sure," said Richard Thornburgh.
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