San Bernardino - Authorities believe wreckage found on a mountainside in the San Bernardino National Forest is the remains of the plane of a man who vanished seven years ago.

The disappearance of 24-year-old Daniel Katz, a former Israeli paratrooper, on June 3, 2001 spurred one of the most extensive and high-tech searches in the area's history.



The tail number on the Piper Archer II confirms it was the plane Katz rented, Sheriff's spokeswoman Arden Wiltshire said Monday. "We're pretty sure it's him," Wiltshire said.

The wreckage was found on a steep mountainside north of Rancho Cucamonga near Lytle Creek on Sunday.

Fragments of human remains were also found about 400 feet from the debris.

"Additional testing will be required to confirm the identity of the victim," coroner's spokeswoman Sandy Fatland said in a written statement. "However, based on the proximity and the location of the remains, authorities believe it to be Daniel Katz."

Katz, the grandson of Marcos Katz, a prominent Israeli businessman who lived in Mexico, was flying back to the La Verne airport from Perris, where a skydiving trip had been canceled because of low clouds.

Searchers used satellites and jet-mounted experimental radar to search for Katz at the time of his disappearance, but everything proved fruitless amid the rugged terrain and thick tree canopy in that section of the San Gabriel Mountains.

A sheriff's department helicopter spotted the glint of metal on the steep mountainside Saturday, and a crew reached the wreckage on Sunday.

Now-retired Deputy Chief Mike Cardwell, who helped lead the search for Katz at the time of his disappearance, said he was amazed the discovery took so long.

"We figured that, between forest fires and deer hunters, the plane would turn up," Cardwell told the Riverside Press-Enterprise. "Well, deer hunters don't hunt on vertical cliffs."