Guy Kapulnik, an actor and flight instructor, has been identified as one of two people killed in a single-engine plane crash in Southern California.
Kapulnik, an Israeli national who lived in Los Angeles, died Thursday morning when his Aeronca Champion went down nose-first in a remote field in Hesperia, north of Lake Arrowhead. The other victim was Taylor Laska, 33, of Santa Monica. The Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board are continuing to investigate the cause of the crash.
Kapulnik’s aircraft belonged to Midfield Aviation of Apple Valley, according to Victor Valley News. In recent years he had worked as a flight instructor, turning his passion for aviation into a profession after establishing himself in film and television.
His acting career spanned more than 30 IMDB credits, including roles in 2020’s “Call of the Wild,” “Room 514,” “Salsa Tel Aviv,” “Watch Over Me,” and “Lebanon.” He trained at the Technion in Haifa and the Nissan Nativ Acting Studio in Jerusalem before building his career across Israeli and international productions.
Before his work in entertainment and aviation, Kapulnik served in the Israeli Defense Forces’ elite 669 search and rescue unit, an airborne extraction and medical evacuation team. His family, speaking to the Times of Israel, described him in a statement that emphasized his restless drive across multiple disciplines.
“Guy was a man of action, curiosity, and adventure. An actor and creator, a skipper and seaman. Throughout his life, he moved between the stage and the camera, the sea and the skies, and dared again and again to choose new paths and do the things he loved,” his family told the Times of Israel.
That characterization of constant motion — between stage and camera, sea and sky — now frames the final chapter of a life that ended in the air over the Mojave Desert. His family called him simply a “man of action.”
Kapulnik’s memorial service is scheduled for Wednesday in Karmei Yosef, the Israeli community where he grew up. The timing places the funeral roughly one week after the crash that took his life and Laska’s.
The wreckage was discovered in the remote field Thursday, with emergency responders finding the mangled remains of the light aircraft. The crash site location in Hesperia sits in San Bernardino County’s high desert, an area known for aviation activity and training flights given its open terrain and generally clear conditions.
Laska’s presence on the flight has not been fully explained in available reports, leaving unclear whether she was a student, passenger, or fellow instructor. What is known is that both she and Kapulnik died when the single-engine aircraft failed to complete its journey.
The FAA and NTSB investigations typically examine factors including weather conditions, mechanical status, pilot experience, and flight records to determine probable cause. No preliminary findings have been released from either agency regarding the Thursday morning crash.
Kapulnik’s death marks a sudden end to a career that had recently bridged two worlds — the performative and the technical — with the same energy his family described as constantly seeking new challenges. From military service to acting studios to flight instruction, each phase represented what they called another path dared and chosen.
The memorial in Karmei Yosef will take place Wednesday.