3 Missing as Helicopter Crashes on Way to Island

A Southern California Edison helicopter carrying three people crashed in the ocean off Huntington Beach on Friday, and there were no signs of survivors.

Search aircraft located a man’s body about 12:15 p.m. floating near the wreckage. The Coast Guard recovered the wreckage and an uninflated raft, but the body sank before it could be retrieved, said Lt. Carol Stearns, Coast Guard spokeswoman in Long Beach.

The aircraft had taken off at 6:35 a.m. from an Edison facility in Irvine on a flight to Santa Catalina Island. A company spokeswoman said the pilot and two passengers were flying to a business meeting in Avalon.

The Coast Guard launched a sea and aerial search at 8 a.m. when notified by Edison that the helicopter had failed to arrive on Catalina at 7 a.m. as scheduled.

The hunt for survivors continued in the afternoon, with officials hopeful that the pilot and passenger would be found alive.

The names of the victims, two men and a woman, have not been released pending notification of relatives.

Edison spokeswoman Emiko Banfield said the utility operates power distribution and generating stations on the island.

Coast Guard officials said the pilot called the Edison facility in Irvine at 6:42 a.m., about seven minutes after taking off, saying that he was starting to fly over water. It was the aircraft’s last transmission, and Stearns said that “there never was a report of trouble.”

The helicopter had an emergency locater transmitter to help searchers pinpoint its location, but the signal never went off, Stearns said.

Banfield said the pilot was very experienced and that the 8-year-old helicopter had not had any mechanical breakdowns since it was purchased in 1998. She said the passengers and pilot were wearing life vests, and she described the flight as routine.

Coast Guard officials said the weather was overcast and the cloud ceiling at only 300 feet, with visibility about 1 1/2 miles, when the helicopter took off.

Investigators were not sure if the weather was a factor in the accident.