A Space Systems/Loral engineer was one of two men who died when their experimental aircraft crashed near Byron on Tuesday, Oct. 23.

David Behne, 57, was identified on Friday, Oct. 26, by the Contra Costa County Sheriff's Office following a review of dental records by the sheriff's coroner's division, said Sheriff's spokesman Jimmy Lee.

Behne and longtime friend Larry Strobel, 56, both of Brentwood, were flying the two-seat, custom-made, single-engine, Glasair III plane, owned by Behne when the crash occurred.

The plane was heard whirring overhead by a witness before it fell in a corkscrew dive and crashed into a farm field shortly before 2 p.m. Tuesday near Marsh Creek Road and Byron Highway.

The National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration are investigating the crash.

Behne worked at Space Systems/Loral in Palo Alto on commercial satellites used by television companies, his son, Eric Behne, said. His father flew almost every day, including daily commutes from his airstrip in Brentwood to the Palo Alto Airport on his way to work, Eric Behne said.

Earl Hibler, a pilot and longtime friend of Behne, said today that he spent much of Thursday at the crash site with two others picking up pieces of the plane to return what is left to the Funny Farm airstrip, the private airport that Behne owned in Brentwood.

"It was a long and grueling day," Hibler said. "When your best friend dies and you have to pick up the wreckage, it's tough."

Hibler added that he himself was among those who helped Behne build the plane in 2008, and Hibler said he had flown it himself many times.

Behne and Strobel were longtime friends and avid pilots, according to Eric Behne. They also were accomplished engineers.

Strobel was the owner and namesake of L.D. Strobel Co. Inc., of Concord, a wireless and utility construction company that has completed 5,000 projects, including communications towers in Hawaii and San Francisco, since its founding by Strobel in 1987, according the firm's website.

Strobel's most recent projects included cell towers built on Treasure Island and atop the parking garage of the South San Francisco BART station.

Strobel owned two single-engine, two-seat aircrafts, a Vans RV-4, which he constructed himself, and Kenneth M. Browne Christen Eagle II, according to FAA registration records.

A person who answered the phone at Strobel's company declined to comment on the founder's passing.

Hibler said he did not know Strobel well, but that Strobel was part of a group of airplane race fans that included Behne who drove to Nevada to watch Hibler compete in the Reno Air Races.

Behne owned about a dozen aircraft at the Funny Farm airstrip, Hibler said.

Eric Behne said that his father, who started out as a pilot at age 16, piloted the plane the day of the crash. His father took off from the private Funny Farm airstrip, at 2600 Penny Lane in Brentwood, with Strobel for a short flight for fun, he said.

David Behne had a long career as an aerospace and communications engineer, having worked on engines for the Space Shuttle program at the aerospace firm Rocketdyne and on airborne lasers for Lockheed Martin.

— Bay City News Service

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