A small plane carrying six people crashed into the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego on Sunday, and authorities are currently investigating the incident.
According to the Federal Aviation Administration, the twin-engine Cessna 414 took off shortly before 12:30 p.m. and was headed to Phoenix before it went down, a destination confirmed by flight tracking data from FlightAware.
Crews searching for the plane discovered a debris field about five miles off the coast of Point Loma, a peninsula in San Diego known for its steep ocean cliffs, with the Coast Guard noting that the search area is in waters roughly 200 feet deep.
The U.S. Coast Guard reported that as of their latest update, all six people on board were missing.
The identities of those on the plane have not been disclosed. Tyson Wislofsky, an eyewitness who was surfing nearby, shared his account of the moments leading up to the crash in an interview with NBC 7 San Diego.
“I saw the plane come down at an angle, then climb back into the clouds,” Wislofsky recalled. “The next time he came out of the clouds, he went straight into the water. After the splash, about six seconds later, it was dead silent. I knew they went in nose first, at high speed.”
This latest incident occurred less than three weeks after another Cessna aircraft crashed into a San Diego neighborhood in foggy conditions, killing six people.
