6 people killed in crash of small aircraft off San Diego, FAA says
Six people were killed when a small plane crashed into the ocean off San Diego on Sunday afternoon, the Federal Aviation Administration said Monday.
The final moments before the twin-engine Cessna crash – which triggered a major search of the Pacific Ocean near San Diego – are captured in an air traffic control audio recording from LiveATC.net.
'Mayday! Mayday! Mayday!' the pilot of the Cessna 414 can be heard shouting on the recording only five minutes after taking off from San Diego International Airport.
The pilot and five passengers were killed when the plane crashed into the water 'under unknown circumstances,' the FAA told CNN. The Coast Guard is searching a debris field.
An urgent exchange is heard on the audiotape as the pilot tells an air traffic controller he is struggling to maintain a heading.
'What seems to be the issue?' the air traffic controller can be heard asking
'Just struggling right now to maintain heading … and climb,' the pilot replied. The controller from the Southern California Terminal Radar Approach Control advised the pilot to land at nearby Naval Air Station North Island.
Flight tracking data shows the plane taking off at 12:25 p.m. local time bound for Phoenix. In the five minutes that followed, the plane reached a maximum altitude of only 2,100 feet before making two turns to the left, according to open-source data from ADS-B Exchange.
The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the cause of the crash.
Weather conditions at the time of the crash were not particularly poor. Visibility was 10 miles and winds were at about 8 mph from the west-northwest, with no gusts. There was a thick, overcast cloud layer at around 1500 feet, according to data from nearby airports analyzed by CNN meteorologists.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
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