The crew of a fishing boat reported a plane hitting the water on Friday, an official with the Los Angeles County Fire Department’s Lifeguards Division said.
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One of the aircrafts was a Beechcraft while the other was a Super Decathlon, the two went missing off the coast of Long Beach near San Pedro. A 72-year-old woman was the sole occupant of the other plane, according to the Coast Guard. The area is popular for flight students.
The Coast Guard said that Los Angeles Harbor will continue to be closed.
A search for wreckage and survivors was launched over a 200-square-mile area and continued through the night before a more exptensive search resumed Saturday with the sunrise.
With the help of dozens of federal and local authorities, the Coast Guard is conducting a rescue operation, CNN said.
After 24 hours and no sign of the missing persons, rescue crews suspended their search by mid-afternoon on Friday, the Coast Guard said in a statement. Officials from the Coast Guard and the FAA said the two planes went down at about 3:30 p.m. Friday near the Angeles Gate Lighthouse. Investigators had no immediate word on what might have caused the accident or the number of people aboard the two planes.
Search teams are said to have recovered wreckage including a pilot’s logbook.
This isn’t the first time planes have collided midair near Los Angeles.
“So with the amount of activity, actually, I think we’ve been fortunate”.
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In 2001, four people died when two Cessna airplanes carrying instructors and students collided 1,000 feet above the harbor. “We’re extremely diligent. I do not understand why, what occurred in this scenario”.
