Coast Guard suspends search for plane that crashed into the ocean off San Diego and killed 6

The Coast Guard suspended the search Tuesday for the wreckage of a small plane that crashed into the ocean shortly after taking off from San Diego, killing all six people aboard.

The National Transportation Safety Board said it will continue working to determine why the Cessna 414 crashed Sunday, but it doesn’t expect to have any updates on the crash until it publishes its preliminary report about a month from now.

With the wreckage still resting under a couple hundred feet of water, the NTSB’s investigator isn’t even immediately travelling to where the plane crashed about 3 miles (about 5 kilometers) off the coast of Point Loma, a San Diego neighborhood that juts into the Pacific.

Authorities have not identified the people who died in the crash. The plane was scheduled to return to Arizona on Sunday — one day after it flew out to San Diego. A natural supplements company called Optimal Health Systems based in Pima, Arizona, said it sold the plane in 2023 to a group of individuals who are part of their small community.

Air traffic controllers quickly became concerned about the plane after it failed to climb over 1,000 feet or turn back east after taking off. The pilot reported having trouble climbing and maintaining his heading before repeatedly calling out “Mayday” before the plane disappeared from radar.

This crash came just weeks after a small Cessna crashed into a San Diego neighborhood in foggy weather and killed six people. Those two are just the latest in a string of deadly crashes, mishaps and near misses in aviation this year ever since an airliner collided with an Army helicopter over Washington, D.C., in January, killing 67 people.