The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating a plane crash on Islay Hill that killed Fresno native Heber Jesse Meeks Monday night.

According to Sgt. Rick Neufeld of the SLO Sheriff's Dept., the 44-year-old Meeks had taken off from the SLO County Airport about 9:45 p.m. when for reasons unknown his single-engine craft slammed into the hill, which is about 700 feet high and just east of the airport. Foggy weather may have contributed to the crash.

-K.H.