Coast Guard Suspends Search in Ocean Crash
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SAN DIEGO — The Coast Guard Friday suspended its search for survivors of Wednesday’s crash of a small plane five miles off the San Diego coast.
Coast Guard Lt. David O’Brien said the search was halted pending any indication of possible survivors. Pilot Rick Mathews, 55, his wife, Pat, and their daughter, Susan, all of Fullerton, are believed to have been aboard the aircraft.
The Coast Guard recovered a wing, seat, headrest and curtains from the aircraft. A sweater and a pair of tennis shoes were also found in the area of the wreckage, O’Brien said.
While there was no indication that anyone escaped the plane, O’Brien said, “we can’t rule out the possibility of survivors until we find bodies.”
The plane disappeared Wednesday from the radar screens of Federal Aviation Administration officials at Miramar Naval Air Station, who were in radio contact with the plane before it vanished.
The pilot of the Saratoga Piper PA32, after making an initial pass over Lindbergh Field, indicated that he would return to Fullerton because of dense fog and low visibility in San Diego, O’Brien said.
After Mathews radioed his decision, he vanished from air traffic controllers’ radar screens, O’Brien said.
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