Archive image: U.S. Coast Guard MH-65E Dolphin aircrew take off during Exercise Sourdough in San Francisco, California, Dec. 5, 2024.
Exercise Sourdough is the Department of Defense’s largest urban evasion exercise, which exceeds more than 49 square miles of land coverage, 100 personnel involved and contributions from 17 different agencies.
U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Scott Warner.
SAN FRANCISCO — The Coast Guard, along with state and local agencies, has concluded the search for three people from a plane crash near Point Pinos, California, Sunday morning.
At 10:55 p.m. Saturday evening, watchstanders at Coast Guard Station Monterey received a relay from Monterey County detailing that a twin-engine Beechcraft, tail number N8796R, with three people on board had crashed approximately 200-300 yards off of Point Pinos.
Coast Guard Station Monterey launched a 29-foot Response Boat-Small (RB-S) crew, which arrived on scene approximately 15 minutes after notification. Watchstanders at Coast Guard Sector San Francisco also coordinated the launch of an Air Station San Francisco MH-65E Dolphin Short-Range Recovery Helicopter aircrew for the initial aerial searches. An Air Station Ventura MH-60T Jayhawk Medium-Range Recovery Helicopter aircrew was also launched to conduct a search at first light.
At 3:01 a.m. Sunday morning, the Monterey Fire Boat 12 crew located the first person on scene, unresponsive. At 5:56 a.m. a CAL FIRE drone located the Beechcraft fuselage. The Monterey Fire Boat 12 crew then worked in conjunction with a commercial dive team to locate and recover the remaining two people inside the aircraft between 6:31 a.m. and 9:08 a.m., both found unresponsive.
The Beechcraft originally took off from San Carlos airport.
Rescue crews involved in the search:
- Monterey Fire Boat 12 boat crew
- 1 CAL FIRE boat crew
- 2 CAL FIRE drones
- Commercial divers
The assets searched for a combined 13 hours, with 346 miles of trackline searched over a search area of approximately 100 square nautical miles.
Additional agencies involved in the response include:
- Pacific Grove Police Department
- Monterey County Sheriff’s Office
- San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office
- Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office
- California State Parks
- Underwater Dive Company
The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the cause of the crash.
–USCG–
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