Last 2 Bodies in Midair Crash Recovered

Divers recovered two bodies Monday from the second of two single-engine planes that collided in midair and sank in the ocean off the Long Beach harbor jetty, killing four people.

Investigators remained uncertain about what caused a Cessna 172 operated by a student pilot to collide Sunday afternoon with a Piper Arrow carrying a Redondo Beach father and son about a mile south of the Queen Mary.

It took two Sheriff’s Department divers about 10 minutes Monday morning to locate the Cessna’s wreckage in 57 feet of water and the bodies of the student pilot, Gabriel Zepeda, 29, and Lars Tvedt, 21, a flight instructor and native of Norway.

Divers hampered by murky water and fading light had been unable to find the Cessna late Sunday afternoon, although they did manage to locate the Piper and the bodies of the father and son from Redondo Beach.

Authorities identified them as Thomas Schott, 50, an oral pathologist and licensed airline transport pilot, and his son, Loren, 21, who earned his pilot’s license for small planes about a year ago.

Neighbors said the father and son, who lived together in a Redondo Beach townhouse, were nearly inseparable and often flew planes together. The elder Schott was a licensed flight instructor for planes and helicopters.

Investigators said they did not know where the Schotts were headed. They added that the son was in the left-hand pilot’s seat at the time of the crash.

Although one witness to the accident suggested that the Cessna appeared to be doing aerobatic stunts when the collision occurred, authorities painted a different picture.

Thomas H. Wilcox, a National Transportation Safety Board investigator, said the pilot of a third private plane not involved in the accident observed a Cessna in the area performing a series of wide-banking aerial maneuvers called “chandelles” in the moments before the collision. This prompted speculation by other authorities that the planes may have collided while Zepeda practiced the technique.

“Obviously, the pilots failed to see each other,” Wilcox said. “Why they didn’t see each other is something that the investigation will have to determine.”

A chandelle is a climbing turn that is taught to advanced student pilots to teach them precision handling. The Cessna apparently was performing a series of these maneuvers when the collision occurred.

Wilcox said someone on the ground “with an uneducated eye” could mistake an aircraft performing the exercise for a stunt plane.

The investigation has yielded few other clues and little headway was made Monday as a salvage firm worked to pull the Piper from about 35 feet of water. The salvage team is not expected to go after the Cessna until today at the earliest.

Elly Brekke, a spokeswoman for the FAA’s regional headquarters in Los Angeles, said neither pilot was in contact with the ground at the time of the accident. “They were operating visually and were not being given explicit instructions by an air traffic controller,” Brekke said.

The accident did not seem to cause much concern Monday among Long Beach officials. “Nothing like this has occurred before so there is nothing to alarm us,” said Jim Rae, the city’s superintendent of marine safety. “We believe it was just a freak thing that happened and we pray that it won’t happen again.”

The bodies of Zepeda and Tvedt were pulled from the ocean about 9:30 a.m. Monday. Members of Zepeda’s family had arrived hours before, eager for any news on the fate of the South Gate real estate agent.

Maria Gomez, his sister, said she and other family members, including Zepeda’s mother, Teresa, came to the Port of Long Beach at dawn, where they remained until a rescue boat returned his body to shore.

Zepeda, father of two baby girls, had been taking flying lessons for more than six months, fulfilling a lifelong dream, Gomez said. His wife, Maria, was stunned by the news and remained home, Gomez said.

She said family members who gathered for the early morning vigil were “hoping really that it wasn’t him.”

When the lifeguard boat motored slowly toward the dock and the crew unloaded the two bodies in white plastic bags, Gomez and the other family members began to sob, their hands grasping the chain-link fence.

Times staff writer Shawn Hubler contributed to this story from Redondo Beach.