4th Plane Crash Victim Officially Identified as Lucas Benjamin

By City News Service

The Los Angeles County coroner's office today publicly identified the fourth person killed in a small jet's crash last Sunday at the Santa Monica Airport.

The coroner's office today confirmed that Lucas Benjamin, 28, of Malibu, was killed in the crash, said coroner's investigator Dana Bee. Earlier, the coroner's office had released of three others killed in the crash: Lauren Winkler, 28, of and Kyla Dupont, 53, both of San Diego, and Mark Benjamin, the younger man's 63-year-old father and a Malibu resident.

The twin-engine Cessna Citation 525A, which took off in Hailey, Idaho, slammed into a hangar after veering off the runway about 6:20 p.m. Sunday as it landed, causing the structure to collapse and sparking an explosive fire that spread to two other hangars.

The elder Benjamin, president of Santa Monica-based Morley Builders, was believed to have been at the controls. Winkler worked for an organization called Save A Child's Heart, which provides free open-heart surgery in Israel to children from Africa and the Middle East, according to an article written by a friend of the woman's father. In the article, which appears on the website of Irvine-based BusinessGhost Inc., company President and CEO Michael Levin writes that Winkler was as a fundraiser and executive at Save A Child's Heart.

The cause of the crash was under investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board, but the probe has been delayed because of the federal government shutdown.