Wreckage, bodies of 4 men raised

Plane that crashed and sunk off south O.C. coast Saturday was mostly intact, official says.Salvage crews late Tuesday recovered the bodies of four men in the wreckage of the small plane that crashed into the ocean off the coast of San Clemente on Saturday.

Crews used flotation devices and cables to raise the plane, which was resting upside down on the ocean floor more than 200 feet below the surface and two miles off the shore, said Jim Amormino, spokesman for the Orange County Sheriff’s department.

“The plane is virtually intact,” Amormino said.

The plane was lifted onto a barge and taken into Dana Point Harbor.

Amormino said the four men were found inside the plane, “two in the front, two in the back.”

Family members and some officials have identified those aboard the plane.

Pilot Dan Neuman and passengers Jason Baldwin, Jeff TenEyck and Rick Olavson were returning from an off-road race in Mexico when the plane plummeted into the ocean at 2:06 p.m. Saturday.

Neuman was a veteran pilot and part-time aviation instructor at Orange Coast College. Baldwin, a Newport Beach real estate developer and an off-road racer, had invited TenEyck and Olavson to watch the Baja 1000 race, which Baldwin had competed in Saturday.

Olavson was a developer based in Los Angeles. TenEyck, who grew up in Laguna Beach, lived in Wyoming.

Fifteen deep sea divers, from the sheriff’s department and a private aviation salvage company, removed the men’s bodies from the plane.

Witnesses reported seeing the plane spiraling downward, nose-first, into the water; the plane sank almost immediately and came to rest in 218 feet of water, officials said.

The single-engine, fixed-wing Cessna 210 took off from San Felipe, Mexico, and made a stop at San Diego’s Brown Field Municipal Airport. It was bound for John Wayne Airport, U.S. Coast Guard Lt. Tony Migliorini said.

The plane is registered to a Newport Beach company, TR Builder Corp., owned by the father of one of the passengers, according to Federal Aviation Administration records.

The victims’ families boarded a private yacht early Tuesday and went to the scene of the wreckage, where they planned to remain until the plane and the bodies of their loved ones were raised, Amormino said.

Tuesday afternoon, Dan Brun -- who knows Jason Baldwin and his wife, Eve -- waited onshore for news.

“They’re in shock,” Brun said of the victims’ families. He described Baldwin as “friendly and well-liked.”

Rescue efforts stalled Tuesday when two of the deep sea divers encountered problems trying to reach the plane. One diver was entangled in an anchor line and had to be brought up, Amormino said.

A second diver got within 60 feet of the plane when he was caught in a strong current and swept several hundred yards from the wreckage, Amormino said.

Divers returning from a deep sea dive must go into a hyperbaric chamber for two hours to acclimate their bodies to the pressure change, Amormino said. Only one diver at a time was allowed to dive to the wreckage, and each diver could only be submerged for a 30-minute period, Amormino said.

A small crowd of onlookers gathered at the Dana Point Harbor Patrol offices Tuesday trying to catch a glimpse of the rescue efforts miles off shore.

Larry and Laura Prudholme, of San Juan Capistrano, said they were curious because nothing of this magnitude ever happens in the area.

“I was very surprised that a Cessna would just come nose down like that,” said Larry Prudholme.

Prudholme heard about the crash when he saw the crowds of media at the harbor patrol offices during a morning walk. 20051123iqdwo4knPHOTOS BY DOUGLAS ZIMMERMAN / DAILY PILOT(LA)At the entrance to Dana Point Harbor on Tuesday, above, people watch as crews attempt to recover a small plane that crashed several miles offshore Saturday, killing the four people inside. Top right, boats gather at the site of the crash off the coast of San Clemente. 20051123iqdwmzknNo Caption20051123iqdwluknDOUGLAS ZIMMERMAN / DAILY PILOT(LA)An Orange County Harbor Patrol boat carrying a diver returns to Dana Point Harbor.