On Monday evening, September 28th, the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office identified the missing pilot of a plane crash in Santa Barbara, California. 61-year-old Deborah Nicholson from the Lake Tahoe area was the only occupant of the small Cessna 182 Skylane.
The accident report disclosed that the plane went down shortly after it departed from the Santa Barbara Airport on Sunday, September 27th. The sheriff’s office received a call about the incident around 7:09 a.m. after air tower personnel lost contact with the aircraft.
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The Santa Barbara Fire Department spokesman Mike Eliason said after the plane left the runway, a witness saw it undergo a rapid descent before striking the ocean about 2.5 miles off the coast.
Multiple agencies responded to search for the aircraft, including personal watercraft owners and the U.S. Coast Guard cutters. The searchers located sheen and debris from the plane about two miles off the coast, where the water is 180 feet to 250 feet deep.
The sheriff’s office summoned a special dive team equipped for such depths from Los Angeles County. The Coast Guard took over the search and rescue on Sunday with the hope of finding Nicholson alive.
The Coast Guard called off the search by 9 a.m. Monday and switched it to a body recovery operation. In the evening, the SBCS officials said they have the lead in what they called a missing person investigation.
The sheriff’s office said the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Special Enforcement Bureau Dive Team brought an ocean rescue boat and the divers can dive as deep as 300 feet. They are searching for the plane and Nicholson, and the National Transportation Safety Board is also investigating the crash.
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