by City News Service

Emergency crews responding to a report of a possible plane crash Tuesday in the remote, rugged southern reaches of San Diego County found the widely scattered wreckage of a light aircraft and human remains.

Firefighters discovered the site of the aviation accident shortly after 1:30 p.m. on a rocky cliff face on the eastern side of Lyons Peak in the Lyons Valley area, east of Jamul, according to Cal Fire.

The type of plane that went down was not immediately clear, though a home-built aircraft being flown by a solo pilot was reported missing out of Gillespie Field in El Cajon earlier in the day, said Thomas Shoots, a fire captain with the state agency.

The search began at about 12:45 p.m., after a caller reported seeing a plane apparently crash to the ground off the 17900 block of Lyons Valley Road.

The Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board were called in to investigate the accident, an FAA spokesman said.