Plane Crashes Off Newport; 1 Found Alive : Aviation: Craft lost from radar after reporting engine trouble. Three were aboard.

A single-engine airplane with three passengers aboard disappeared from radar Sunday night and apparently plunged into the ocean 13 miles west of Newport Beach, authorities said.

At 10:37 p.m., one unidentified passenger was plucked from the sea, but the fate of the other two wasn’t known.

U.S. Coast Guard Lt.(j.g.) Alex Leon said his agency launched a search with a helicopter and patrol boats that lasted late into the night.

The Mooney model 20, a four-seater headed from Catalina Island to Brackett Field in La Verne, first contacted Federal Aviation Administration radar operators at 6:58 p.m., when it was flying at about 4,500 feet, said Hank Verbais, public affairs officer for the FAA’s Western Pacific Region.

“A minute later, they declared an engine problem mayday,” Verbais said. “We lost them [from radar and radio contact] at 400 feet,” at 7:07 p.m. The engine is believed to have lost power, Verbais and Leon said.

By late Sunday, the Coast Guard search had yielded no sign of the aircraft or the two missing passengers, Leon said. The identities of the three were not known.

Verbais said the sky at the time of the disappearance was clear.