Planes Collide Off Coast

Two light planes, each carrying two people from a flying club in Long Beach, collided over the San Pedro Channel and plunged into the ocean just outside the Long Beach Breakwater on Thursday. There were no signs of survivors.

One of those aboard the planes was identified by his family as Mike Chisholm, 56, owner of a flight school in Chino. The others were not identified. Chisholm’s 16-year-old daughter, Keri, said her father, a retired assistant fire chief at the Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station, was a careful pilot who “never took a risk, ever.”

The body of a man about 45 years old was recovered by a Long Beach Fire Department boat shortly after the accident, which occurred about 3:30 p.m. A search continued into the night for the others.

Officials said both single-engine planes belonged to the Long Beach Flying Club, based at Long Beach Municipal Airport. They said the Cessna 152 and Cessna 172 were on training flights, each carrying a student pilot and an instructor.

Many light aircraft make training flights over the harbor area, in part to avoid the congested airspace surrounding Los Angeles International, Long Beach and John Wayne airports.

It was unknown whether either plane was under the guidance of air traffic controllers. While some pilots over the harbor rely on controllers, most general aviation fliers follow visual flight rules, relying on their eyes to avoid planes.

“These two planes were out there on a very, very clear day,” said Rick Pillsbury, a spokesman for the Long Beach Police Department. “Winds were light.”

Ethan Jensen, 26, the pilot of an Island Express helicopter that flies passengers between the mainland and Santa Catalina, said he was taking off from the heliport near the Queen Mary when he saw the two planes converging at an altitude of about 1,000 feet.

“I thought, gee, I hope they see each other,” Jensen said. “Then, as their paths crossed, I saw debris. They both went straight down. One of them was in a spiral.”

Louis Gaytan, 35, said he was fishing with his 32-year-old brother, Vincent, on Pier J in Long Beach Harbor when they heard a loud noise.

“It sounded like two trains slamming into each other in the distance,” Vincent Gaytan said.

Jensen notified the Long Beach Fire Department at 3:44 p.m., and within five minutes rescue boats from the Fire Department, Los Angeles County lifeguards and the Coast Guard began converging on the scene.

The floating body was recovered from a debris field centered about a quarter of a mile south of the Long Beach entrance to the harbor. Pieces of floating debris, including seats, torn slabs of metal and part of the Cessna’s tail, were pulled from the water.

Pillsbury said the Coast Guard was using sonar detection gear in an effort to find the rest of the two planes, which apparently sank in about 60 feet of water. Officials said the bodies of the other victims might be in the sunken wreckage.

Divers joined the search until nightfall.

Joseph Gallegos, an instructor at the flying club, said the mood there was grim.

“We are all grief-stricken right now,” Gallegos said. “We are trying to figure out what happened.”

The Long Beach Flying Club has been in existence for more than 20 years, using a fleet of 20 single-engine Cessna and Piper airplanes and two twin-engine aircraft.

Many members, aiming for careers as airline pilots, rent airplanes to undergo the hundreds of hours of training and experience that such a career demands. Others are experienced pilots who find it more economical to rent planes than to own them.

Instructors based at the club are independent contractors.

Last August, the club underwent a Federal Aviation Administration “base inspection,” during which every airplane was examined.

The accident will be investigated by the National Transportation Safety Board, FAA spokesman Jerry Snyder said.

Times staff writers Richard O’Reilly and Dan Weikel contributed to this story.