Victims ID’d in Santa Monica Jet Crash

0
445
Coroner’s officials identified Lauren Winkler, Mark Benjamin, KylaDupont and Lucas Benjamin as the victims of the Santa Monica jet crash.

The Los Angeles County coroner’s office on Friday identified the two unnamed victims in last Sunday’s jet crash at the Santa Monica Airport that killed four people, including Malibu locals Mark and Lucas Benjamin.

They are 28-year-old Lauren Winkler of Irvine, Calif., and Kyla Dupont, 53, of San Diego, Calif.

Winkler was the girlfriend of Lucas Benjamin, 28. Benjamin’s father, Mark Benjamin, 63, also died in the crash. He was the CEO and President of Santa Monica-based construction company Morley Builders.

The victims’ remains were uncovered Tuesday last week. Officials used dental records to identify the bodies. The remains of a dog and two cats were also found in the wreckage.

The Benjamin family held a celebration of life for Mark and Lucas at Westward Beach last Friday. Mark Benjamin was known as an active philanthropist, with a particular focus on nature conser vation and youth programs. He sat on the board of the Boys and Girls Club of Malibu and also participated often in the school district.

Lucas Benjamin, who was confirmed Sunday as one of the victims by the coroner’s office, graduated from Malibu High School and worked for Morley Builders as a senior project engineer.

Multiple business websites show that Kyla Dupont owned PropArt/Dupont Design, Inc., a graphic design firm in San Diego, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune.

The website for Business Ghost Inc., an Irvine, Calif.-based company specializing in ghost writing books, featured a blog post by Business Ghost CEP and President Michael Levin, a close friend of Winkler’s father, in which he confirmed her death.

In the post he said Winkler was a fundraiser and executive with the nonprofit Save A Child’s Heart, which provides free medical care for disadvantaged children in Africa and the Middle East.

“The children Lauren’s organization serves come to Israel from 45 countries, with every conceivable heart ailment; some congenital and some induced by war,” Levin wrote. “These are Syrian children, Palestinian children, Jordanian children and children from other nations whose governments remain in a state of war with Israel and who reject the notion of a Jewish state.”

Levin said Winkler traveled to Idaho for the weekend with the Benjamins. He said Mark Benjamin was at the controls when the Cessna Citation jet suddenly skidded off the runway and crashed into a hangar after landing at SMO. The hangar collapsed onto the jet, causing a fire that killed all onboard.

The National Transportation Safety Board is handling the investigation into the crash. Its work has been hampered by the federal government shutdown. No information on what caused the crash or who was at the controls of the jet has been released.

According to Van McKenny of the NTSB, “there was no communication (from) the pilot indicating there was a problem with the aircraft at any time during the flight.”

A witness told KCAL a tire on the landing gear might have blown out on touchdown, causing the plane to swerve to the right. “Since flight manifests for private aircraft do not require the names of the passengers, Lauren’s father, Gary, and her mother, Carole, remained in an agonizing limbo state for hours, and then two whole days, while the coroner’s office matched dental records with the bodies removed from the jet,” wrote Levin, who attended the same synagogue as the Winklers. “Lauren’s death reminds us … that our days are numbered and we don’t know how long we’ll be here. But while we’re here, we’re meant to love and serve one another.”

A previous version of this story appeared in the Santa Monica Daily Press.