“Local authorities say that two people were aboard the Beech Bonanza and one person was onboard the Citabria”, Kenitzer said.
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Two small planes collided over the ocean just outside Los Angeles Harbor and plunged into the water Friday, prompting a massive search by dozens of boats and divers. As darkness fell there was no sign of survivors. The Angels Gate Park entrance to the harbor was closed to help prevent interference with search efforts.
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.
The book allowed authorities to identify the passengers of the first plane as two men, ages 61 and 81.
Both planes had departed from Torrance Airport and were expected to return there earlier Friday, NBC Los Angeles reported; neither of the planes showed.
One of the aircraft was a Beechcraft and the other was a Super Decathlon, a plane that’s often used for aerobatic stunts. The plane flown by the woman is missing, and air traffic controllers saw two aircraft apparently run into each other on radar, leading authorities to conclude they must have collided.
According to CBS News, the blue and yellow planes collided at 3,100 feet and then vanished.
All three missing people were from the South Bay area, and the trio may have died in the crash, a Coast Guard official said.
A U.S. Coast Guard helicopter searches the area after an apparent midair collision left two planes in the water of L.A. harbor on February 5, 2016. The area is popular for flight students. However, the aircraft was able to go back with their airports, as well as the four people on board escaped harm.
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“We don’t want to give up until we really feel that there’s no chance”, Coast Guard Capt. Jennifer Williams told the Associated Press, “that we haven’t scanned the area, searched the whole area and looked for survivors”.
