Ships Seek Bodies of Crew in Plane Crash

Search crews scoured the ocean off California for bodies and wreckage from a downed U.S. Air Force Reserve transport plane Sunday, but officials had given up hope of finding eight missing airmen alive.

“We’re not holding out any hope of finding anyone alive,” Air Force spokesman Maj. Stephen Clutter said from Portland, Ore., where the crashed plane was based.

Two Coast Guard cutters searched the area off the Northern California coast where the HC-130 Hercules, with 11 airmen on board, plunged into the Pacific Ocean on Friday evening after reporting engine and electrical problems during a training flight, Coast Guard spokesman Petty Officer Jeff Murphy said.

One Coast Guard and two Air Force helicopters that had been searching the area, about 60 miles off Cape Mendocino, were grounded Sunday because of poor visibility.

The searchers rescued one survivor soon after the crash and recovered two bodies, but eight airmen were still missing. The crew members belonged to the 939th Rescue Wing’s 304th Rescue Squadron, which specializes in land and sea rescues.

Murphy said the Coast Guard had not given up the search for possible survivors. But other officials said the focus of the effort now was on recovering bodies of the missing crew as well as wreckage to help determine the cause of the crash.

Chances of survival in the cold ocean waters were slim. But Clutter said the usual search time of 20 hours for survivors of ocean crashes had been doubled to 40 hours because the crew was trained in survival techniques and had survival gear on board.

The two bodies that were recovered have not yet been formally identified, he said.

Murphy said heavy winds had spread the debris over a wide area. The Coast Guard was to decide at the end of Sunday whether to continue the search, but the cutters probably would continue to collect debris Monday, he said.