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Military aircraft collide off Calif. coast

SAN DIEGO — The Coast Guard and Navy were still hoping Friday to find survivors of a collision between a Coast Guard plane carrying seven people and a Marine Corps helicopter carrying two off the Southern California coast.

The crash was reported at 7:10 p.m. local time Thursday, about 50 miles off the San Diego County coast and 15 miles northeast of San Clemente Island, Coast Guard spokeswoman Petty Officer Allyson Conroy said.

A pilot reported seeing a fireball near where the aircraft collided, Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor said, and the Coast Guard informed the FAA that debris from a C-130 had been spotted. The Coast Guard plane that crashed was a C-130 Hercules, from Air Station Sacramento.

The Coast Guard crew members had survival gear onboard their aircraft, including exposure suits that could have allowed them to survive in the water for hours, Public Affairs Specialist 3rd Class Henry Dunphy said Friday from San Diego.

“We’re hoping to find survivors,” he said. “We’re not ruling that out.”

The Coast Guard high endurance cutter Jarvis and patrol crafts Blackfin, Edisto and Petrel still are searching the 14-mile crash area, along with two MH-60J Jayhawk helicopters. The Navy amphibious assault ship Peleliu also is helping with the search. Last night, the Peleliu was joined by the frigate Curts and the oiler Guadalupe, but they both were pulled off to continue other missions, according to the Navy.

“We’ve pretty much thrown everything we have at it right now,” Dunphy said.

Search conditions were clear last night with a bright moon in calm seas. Weather conditions continue to be favorable.

The Coast Guard plane was searching for a missing civilian mariner in the area near Catalina Island, just north of San Clemente Island at the time of the collision, Maj. Jay Delarosa, a 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing spokesman, said Friday. The Super Cobra was part of a four-helicopter training mission that included one other AH-1 helicopter from Camp Pendleton and two CH-53E Super Stallion heavy lift helicopters from Miramar, he said.

“They were flying in a mixed section to conduct training,” he said. “Obviously the Cobras were flying escort for the 53s.”

The Cobra and its crew are part of Marine Aircraft Group 39, based at Camp Pendleton, and the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, which is headquartered at Miramar, said Cpl. Michael Stevens, a spokesman for Marine Corps Air Station Miramar.

San Clemente Island is the southernmost of the eight Channel Islands, located 68 nautical miles west of San Diego. The Navy has owned and trained at San Clemente Island since 1934, according to the island’s Web site. Naval Air Station North Island is responsible for the island’s administration.

Earlier this week, it was an AH-1 Cobra attack helicopter that collided with a UH-1 helicopter over southern Afghanistan, killing four American troops and wounding two more, a Marine spokesman said.

Staff writers Gidget Fuentes and Susan Gvozdas contributed to this report.