Flying in to this airport from NoCal needs attention. With five aboard and a boring drone down the valley, once descending into the valley over the Big Bear, the pace needs focus. The valley is a surprise after the boring valley, and the cockpit environment can get busy. Excitement of the expectation of a fun convention, the demands of a complex aircraft, and an adjustment to a busy airborne environment, a bad time to get behind. If the aircraft was a charter, or a rental, time in type would be a factor. A friend owned a 414 and also had a 440. He loved the turbine, and was trying to sell the piston twin.
I don’t like to rely on the eyewitnesses, but “sputtering” is a troubling word. Fuel issues? Loss of an engine should not have been fatal, of course, but just to say it may have come at the “wrong time”. Low, and slow, crowded airspace, after a drone down valley? Such a tragic thing. The Mayday was more likely an engine failure, not fuel starvation, giving the pilot the benefit of the doubt. Not much to go on yet. Concord was my home and the airfield was my base. Lost a friend in a crash at the airfield in the eighties. Flying a Baron, he was returning from LA.
Best
concours