Pilot in fatal Southern California crash had fake police credentials

FILE: Antonio Pastini, left, who had also gone by Jordan Isaacson and was known for years as Ike, was killed while piloting a small plane that crashed into a house in Yorba Linda, Calif. (Julia Ackley via AP)

The man that piloted a plane that broke apart in the sky and crashed in a Southern California neighborhood and killed four people on Sunday had false police credentials on him, according to reports.

Antonio Pastini, 75, was identified as a retired Chicago police officer, but the Chicago Police Department said it has no record of him working for the department. The credentials were found at the crash site in Yorba Linda. They included false retirement papers and a police badge with the same number as a badge that was reported lost in 1978, Chicago police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said.

Pastini was killed shortly after his twin-engine Cessna 414A broke up after takeoff from a nearby airport before falling to pieces and causing a fire in a home where four people died. The victims have not been publically identified. Orange County Sheriff’s Department spokeswoman Carrie Braun confirmed the credentials found at the crash site were not real.

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Pastini’s daughter, Julia Ackley, said her father's birth name was Jordan Isaacson, but did not indicate when or why he changed his name. She said he was a restaurant owner who often flew from his home in Nevada to visit family in California.

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"I'd prefer not to comment, and let the investigators do their job," Ackley told reporters. "My father is exactly who he said he was."

Investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board have been collecting parts of the aircraft and information about Pastini, who is described as a commercial pilot. Preliminary information showed the plane took off around 1:35 p.m. and climbed to 7,800 feet before crashing. The cause of the crash has not been determined.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.