Authorities said a former California mayor died Thursday when the plane he was riding in crash-landed onto a beach and then flipped upside down.
Rex Minter was in a single-engine Cessna that had taken off around 3 p.m. en route to Malibu when the pilot reported engine trouble after taking off from Santa Monica Airport, several media outlets reported, per the Associated Press.
According to media reports, the pilot attempted to make it back to the airport but decided to make an emergency landing on the beach, the Associated Press reported.
The plane attempted to land on the beach, but hit the water at the shoreline, then flipped over just south of the Santa Monica Pier, the news outlets reported.
The city's current Mayor Gleam Davis confirmed Minter's death on Twitter.
"I have spoken with his family and relayed the City’s deepest condolences to them," she tweeted.
According to the news outlets, Minter served as the city's mayor between 1963 and 1967.
