SAN ONOFRE – Searchers failed Wednesday to find the body of a man believed to have died along with a woman in the crash of single-engine plane off the Southern California coast.
Divers from the San Diego County Sheriff's Department and other agencies planned to return Thursday to the crash site about three miles south of the San Onofre nuclear plant.
The pilot, Jamul Muhammad of Los Angles, was plucked from the waves by a Coast Guard helicopter after the plane crashed into the ocean about a half-mile off shore late Tuesday. He is recovering at a San Diego hospital.
Celina Muhammad, 29, of Los Angeles died from hypothermia and drowning, according to the San Diego County Medical Examiner's office. She is not related to the pilot, but both attend the same mosque in the Los Angeles area, authorities said.
The woman's husband was the third person in the Cessna 172N and remains missing, said Lt. Ron Van Raaphorst of the San Diego County Sheriff's Department.
The plane had taken off from Palomar Airport in Carlsbad and was en route to Hawthorne Airport when the pilot reported engine trouble.
from the
Union Tribune
