July 27 (UPI) — U.S. Coast Guardsmen on Sunday recovered three bodies from the Pacific Ocean after a small plane crashed off the California coast the night prior.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The twin-engine Beechcraft airplane with three people on board crashed at about 10:55 p.m. PDT Saturday between 200 and 300 yards off of Point Pinos, Monterey, Calif. It had departed from San Carlos Airport on the San Francisco Bay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A search-and-rescue operation was launched involving local and state law enforcement assets and Coast Guard boats and helicopters, resulting in the body of one occupant being recovered at about 3 a.m. Sunday, the Coast Guard said in a statement<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The plane’s fuselage was then located shortly before 6 a.m. by a Cal Fire drone<\/a>, with U.S. Coast Guardsmen recovering the bodies of the two remaining occupants of the plane at 6:31 a.m and 9:08 a.m.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The U.S. Coast Guard called off the search later Sunday. The operation lasted a combined 13 hours with 346 miles of trackline searched over a search area of about 100 square miles, it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Monterey County Sheriff’s Office late Sunday identified the victims as Steven Eugene Clatterbuck, 60, of Salinas, Calif., James Vincent, 36, and Jamie Lee Tabscott, 44. Both Vincent and Tabscott were from Monterey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “The family and friends of the deceased have expressed that they wish to extend their gratitude for the outpouring of support from the community,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement<\/a>. “They ask for privacy during this difficult time.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n The cause of the crash is under investigation. The National Transportation Safety Board said on X<\/a> it was investigating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n