Newport Beach : Pilot in 3-Fatality Crash Had Alcohol in Blood

The coroner’s office announced Tuesday that a Huntington Beach man piloting a single-engine airplane last February that crashed off the coast of Newport Beach had a blood alcohol level of .15.

Deputy Coroner Ted Sullivan said preliminary test results on the body of Kevin Lee Eisiminger, 30, indicated that he had a blood alcohol level over the .10 legal limit.

But Sullivan said the .15 reading could be misleading because Eisiminger’s body was in the water for more than three weeks.

“The length of time in the water can increase it (blood alcohol level),” he said. A final report will be issued in two weeks, Sullivan added.

Eisiminger’s passengers, Richard Michael Brownell, 27, of Anaheim, and Sandra L. O’Grady, 25, of Huntington Beach, also died when the single-engine, two-seater Cessna plunged into the sea at about 2 a.m. Feb. 26. Bodies of the passengers were recovered the same day, but Eisiminger’s body was not found until it washed ashore in Newport Beach on March 21.

A spokesman for the National Transportation and Safety Board said the cause of the accident is still under investigation.

Witnesses told investigators that the three people left a Westminster nightclub the night of the crash. Eisiminger, a licensed student pilot, was an employee of McDonnell Douglas Corp. His car was found parked at John Wayne Airport after the accident.

The airplane was leased to a flying club made up mostly of McDonnell Douglas personnel, investigators said.