Body of Local Pilot Discovered in China

The body of stunt pilot David Riggs, who twice buzzed the Santa Monica Pier in 2008, was discovered today by search-and-rescue teams diving in a lake in northeastern China where he had crashed earlier in the week.

The body of Studio City-based Riggs was recovered from Caihu Lake on the outskirts of Shenyang after a search that lasted nearly three days, according to Chinese news reports cited by the Los Angeles Times. He flew his plane into the lake Tuesday  while performing a stunt. An 18-year-old Chinese woman working as Riggs' translator was also killed.

Riggs was a self-promoting stunt pilot whose antics inspired much litigation, criminal and civil. He twice buzzed the Santa Monica Pier in 2008 and twice lost his aviation license, most recently in November 2012, as a result of an accident in which another plane crashed in the Nevada desert.