LOS ANGELES, Feb. 6 (UPI) — U.S. Coast Guard officials are continuing their search Saturday for two aircrafts that went down off the Southern California coast following a midair collision.
Divers found a debris field in the waterway off San Pedro, near Los Angeles. Authorities unsuccessfully searched the area for survivors and were able to retrieve a log book from the debris of one plane.
The book allowed authorities to identify the passengers of the first plane as two men, ages 61 and 81.
The tail number of the second aircraft was also found and it is believed to be a plane piloted by a 72-year-old woman. It was set to land at Torrance airport on Friday but never arrived.
The operation is still being classified as a rescue, the Coast Guard said.
“We don’t want to give up on anybody that potentially is out there,” Capt. Jennifer Williams said. “It’s cold water, but it is possible to survive in those temperatures.”
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.
Passengers on a private fishing boat alerted the Coast Guard of a small plane plunging into the water at 3:30 p.m. on Friday, the same time radar signal for two aircrafts was lost.
