Carmichael man among 2 dead in Humboldt County plane crash near airport, officials say

Two Northern California men who died in a plane crash Tuesday were identified, the Humboldt County Sheriff’s office said Thursday, including one from Sacramento County.

At around 11:15 a.m. Tuesday, the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office and Cal Fire personnel responded to a call regarding a fire and potential airplane crash near Kneeland Airport, the county said Wednesday in a news release. Crews reported a “fire and wreckage area” in a ravine just north of the airstrip, where two bodies were found.

The deceased were identified by the coroner Thursday as Gabriel Joshua Kulp, 49, of Grass Valley, and Thomias Edward Smith, 60, of Carmichael. Kulp was flying the plane, a Cessna of unknown model, and Smith was a passenger, the Sheriff’s Office reported.

The National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration are investigating what caused the crash, and the county will perform an autopsy on the plane’s occupants to confirm their cause of death, sheriff’s officials said.

Camila Pedrosa

The Sacramento Bee

Camila Pedrosa is the California Diversions Reporter at The Sacramento Bee. She previously worked on The Bee’s service journalism team and was a summer reporting intern for The Bee in 2024. She graduated from Arizona State University with a master’s degree in mass communication.