San Diego Crashes

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/n...n22crash2.html
Two missing after plane crash near Oceanside coast

By Mark Arner
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

10:51 p.m. June 22, 2008

One man survived and two others were missing Sunday night after a
four-seat plane crashed more than a mile off the coast of
Oceanside.

The crash of a 2006 Cessna 172S was reported to aviation officials
at 5:11 p.m. by a witness in another aircraft, authorities said.

The Coast Guard sent a helicopter, two 32-foot rescue vessels and
an 87-foot cutter. The search was difficult because of thick fog:
Visibility was 20 feet, officials said.

The search was also hampered by a lack of floating wreckage on the
ocean's surface, said Oceanside police Lt. Lee Steitz.

“There was no debris, no other survivors, no oil slick, just no
sign there had been a crash at all,” he said.

Shortly after 9:15 p.m., the police department's active search for
survivors had been suspen ...

The rescued man was taken to a hospital in La Jolla for treatment
of a broken leg, Nelson and Oceanside fire officials said. The man
told authorities that two other men were aboard the aircraft,
Nelson said.

“He said he was a passenger in a plane that went down,” Steitz
said. “He was obviously injured and in shock. He could have been
in the water for 30 to 60 minutes.”



http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniont...1m24plane.html
Vista couple rescue man after plane crash at sea

Survivor is found despite thick fog

By Matthew Rodriguez
STAFF WRITER

June 24, 2008

Amber Jones and her husband were about 1½ miles offshore in their
fishing boat surrounded by dense fog Sunday when her husband
noticed a man floating quietly about 50 yards away.

Jones threw a life preserver near the man, but he didn't reach for
it. Her husband, Darrin, asked the man why he was out there, but
he only replied that he didn't speak English.

His head was going under, and he was gulping water. Together, the
Vista couple pulled the man onto the boat.

They soon learned he had survived a plane crash.

“He said, 'Mi amigos, they're gone, they're dead,' ” Amber Jones
said. “He told us that several times.” ...

An FAA spokesman said the pilot may have been unable to pull the
plane out of a spin.

“Preliminary reports suggest that he tried to” enter the spin, FAA
spokesman Ian Gregor said. “Based on witness accounts.”

Gregor said the flight originated at 1 p.m. at Montgomery Field in
Kearny Mesa. The plane was one of two Cessna 172s that flew from
San Diego to Long Beach. They were returning when the crash
occurred. ...

Amber Jones said the survivor was calm when she and her husband
pulled him from the ocean. He told them he couldn't swim, and that
his legs were broken. He had cuts on his face and arms, she said,
and he told them he had been in the water for about 30 minutes.
...


Yet another:


http://www.airportbusiness.com/web/online/General-Aviation-News/Cessna-Crashes-into-Ocean-after-Carlsbad-Takeoff/18$11838
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Cessna Crashes into Ocean after Carlsbad Takeoff


Lisa Petrillo and Chet Barfield
The San Diego Union-Tribune



CARLSBAD -- A private plane carrying three members of an Arizona
family crashed into the Pacific Ocean yesterday just after taking
off from McClellan-Palomar Airport in Carlsbad.

Two bodies, identified by a relative as Sharon Kochert, 59, and
her daughter, Alexandria Meekcoms, 25, were recovered by
commercial boats about two miles offshore. Kochert's husband,
Leroy "Lee" Kochert, 70, believed to be the pilot of the plane,
was still missing when authorities called off their search about 6
p.m. ...

Airport spokesman Bill Polick said the pilot radioed "some kind of
a catastrophic event" moments after takeoff to air traffic
controllers. ...

Burgan said the three had flown in to see her 5-week-old son, Kaj,
at the home Burgan shares with her husband, Erik, and 10-year-old
daughter, Taliyah. She took a cellular phone photo of the trio
when they deplaned at the airport on Saturday and first held her
baby.

Leroy Kochert was a retired dentist and his wife was his former
dental assistant. Meekcoms was a former English teacher who
attended Purdue University and had become a personal trainer and
fitness model. ...