Setback in Sea Recovery of Crashed Plane

The wreckage of a small plane involved in a February collision off Long Beach that killed four people was found underwater but then lost when a marker buoy vanished, a salvage company official said Saturday.

That stymies efforts to recover the bodies of a La Habra Heights teen and his flight instructor.

Sea Tow of Marina del Rey used sonar equipment to locate the Cessna 152 in 65 feet of water about a half-mile outside Long Beach Harbor.

Owner Chuck Myers said the company, which was donating its help, marked the site with a red buoy and relayed the coordinates to the U.S. Coast Guard.

But when federal authorities and Los Angeles County coroner’s officials arrived at the site Friday morning, the buoy had vanished. Myers speculated that a passing boat accidentally cut its line.

The Coast Guard is not conducting its own search because the National Transportation Safety Board, which is the lead investigator in the case, has not requested its help, officials said.

A call seeking comment from the NTSB on Saturday was not immediately returned.

The two-seat Cessna 152 and a four-seat Cessna 172, both from the Long Beach Flying Club, collided Feb. 15 about 1,000 feet above the harbor. Each plane was carrying an instructor and a student.

The bodies of flight instructor Kevin Sok, 33, of Long Beach and 18-year-old student pilot Michael Wallace of La Habra Heights are believed to be inside the aircraft.

The bodies of John Michael Chisolm, 56, and student pilot Stephen Arlow, 42, both of Huntington Beach, were previously recovered from the other plane.