ANGELES NATIONAL FOREST >> Coroner’s officials have released the identity of the 57-year-old San Diego doctor killed over the weekend when his single-engine airplane he was piloting crashed into a mountainside amid poor weather in the forest north of Altadena.
Thomas Bruff died in the crash, believed to have taken place about 9 a.m. Sunday, when his Cessna 182 disappeared from radar, according to Los Angeles County coroner’s and sheriff’s officials.
Bruff was reportedly a medical doctor with offices in San Diego and El Centro, who had traveled to Nepal and Ecuador to help with earthquake relief, according to NBC7 San Diego.
An autopsy determined Bruff died from “multiple blunt traumatic injuries,” and the death was determined to be accidental, according to coroner’s records. Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular Disease was listed as a significant factor in the death.
Sheriff’s search and rescue teams spent more than seven hours searching for the wreckage after the airplane, registered to a San Diego-based company, disappeared by radar while en route to Santa Monica Airport from Montgomery Field in San Diego, according to sheriff’s and Federal Aviation Administration officials.
Rough weather and low visibility slowed the initial hours of the search efforts, as conditions did not allow for the use of search helicopters, according to sheriff’s Lt. Randy Tuinstra.
Once the crash site was located near Brown Mountain Sunday afternoon, paramedics pronounced Bruff dead at the scene. A lengthy process then began to recover his remains.
The FAA is carrying out an investigation into the cause of the crash.

PHOTO of June 15, 2016, airplane crash site near Mr. Brown in the Angeles National Forest north of Altadena courtesy of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.