Big Sur Airplane Crash Victims Rescued
U.S. Coast Guards rescued two victims from an airplane crash off the southern Big Sur Coast Sunday afternoon. They had received radio distress calls from a downed Cessna light plane and were able to locate it using an on-board GPS. Its victims declined medical attention and the airplane sank into the ocean.
A third generation Patrol Craft, Flower Ray (PT65), conducting a sea-rescue demonstration. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
About 38 nautical miles or 47 land miles northwest of Morro Bay U.S. Coast Guards received a distress call through the radio a few minutes after 3:00 p.m. according to Coast Guard Officer 1st Class Rachel Polish.
With the use of MH-65 helicopters and boats rescuers responded to the accident from various locations, one Coast Guard rescue crew flew from a San Francisco Air Station and another from a Los Angeles Air Station, along with rescue boats from the Monterey and Morro Bay stations.
Coast Guard crews were able to locate the airplane with the use of a global positioning system locator beacon on board the aircraft (it had been registered with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which made it much easier to find.)
Closer to the location of the crash than the other units, the San Francisco team was the first to arrive. They responded to the rescue with the training that they had received and performed a rescue operation that got the two aircraft occupants out of the craft safely and onto the helicopter. While the rescue was being executed, the Cessna was overturned and partially submerged.
John Galuska, an eyewitness, according to Mercury news, watched the last 15 minutes of the operation from the base of Gorda Mountain, south of Redwood Gulch and north of Soda Springs. He said that he saw the plane sink at about 5:15 p.m.
According to Polish, both occupants were flown from the scene of the accident to a Paso Robles hospital but declined any medical attention. Their identities were not made public.
A major factor in finding the aircraft had to deal with the on-board presence of the NOAA-registered GPS device. It gave the rescuers a more accurate location of where the scene of the crash was and cut down on the guess work.
In addition to the Coast Guard, the Civil Air Patrol, California Highway Patrol and Customs and Border Protection were involved in the rescue effort. However, the cause of the accident is still being investigated by the appropriate authorities.
If you, or someone you know has survived an airplane crash, contact The Consumer’s Law Group today!
Reviewed by Chris H. in 2012.