Coast Guard suspends search for plane crash survivors near Long Beach
The search for survivors of a midair collision involving two small planes off the coast of Long Beach was suspended Tuesday and the operation reclassified as a “recovery” effort to locate bodies and wreckage, U.S. Coast Guard officials said.
“We did not find any additional debris, and no evidence of the people who were the occupants of the aircraft,” Coast Guard Capt. Paul Wiedenhoeft said during an afternoon news conference.
A pilot, who saw the collision and the planes fall into the sea, reported the crash about 5:45 p.m. Monday. The Coast Guard and local public safety agencies began a search for at least three people that eventually covered more than 150 square miles.
Ian Gregor, a spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration, said one aircraft was a Cessna 172, a single-engine plane with a flight instructor and student pilot aboard. The other plane, he said, was a Cessna 310, a twin-engine aircraft, possibly occupied by only its pilot.
The Cessna 172 is registered to Aero Aviation Flight School at the Long Beach Airport. Company officials could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
The pilot and registered owner of the Cessna 310 is Gary D. Gierczak, 53, of Los Alamitos, who is married and has two children, Ross, 22, and Jennelle, 23. Lizanne, his wife of 30 years, said Gary started flying in high school and became a flight instructor.
“He taught me how to fly and I married him,” Lizanne said.
She added that she believed her husband, an engineer at Boeing in Huntington Beach, was the only person aboard their plane.
Investigators say both aircraft took off from Long Beach Airport and later came down in an area of the ocean that is 93 to 115 feet deep.
Involved in the search were the Coast Guard, the Los Angeles city and county fire departments, the Long Beach Fire Department and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, which will continue the underwater search and recovery effort.
The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the crash.
A nose wheel and seat cushions are among the debris that rescue boats have found.
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