Long Beach fire Capt. Mark Miller says the control tower at Long…
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Two planes went down off the coast of Los Angeles on Friday in what could have been an in-flight collision, the Coast Guard said.
“We are speculating to some degree that there were two aircraft, but it would be unusual for one just to go down with that amount of debris field”, Williams said.
US Coast Guard and other officials confirmed this development.
The other plane – a Super Decathlon – was being flown by a 72-year-old woman.
The Federal Aviation Administration and the U.S. Coast Guard confirmed to ABC News affiliate KABC-TV that the aircraft crashed into the ocean after the midair collision around 3:15 p.m. PT.
“We don’t want to give up on anybody that potentially is out there”, Williams said.
Boats, helicopters and divers are involved in the searching.
KTLA reports that at least one of the planes was a stunt plane and that the area of the crash is popular for flight students, but very little is known about who was on board at the time of the collision. Dive operations would resume, possibly along with sonar searches, Saturday morning, according to the Coast Guard.
As darkness fell, about two dozen divers were on call to scour the area but the planes may be at the bottom in up to 90 feet (30 meters) of water, Haskett said.
The crash happened off the San Pedro harbor, close to Angel’s Gate lighthouse.
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The U.S. Coast Guard closed Los Angeles Harbor entrance to all vessel traffic until further notice to allow for effective search efforts, a release from the USCG public affairs detachment, Los Angeles said.
