Plane Crash Off California Coast Sparks Urgent Search for Survivors

Rescue teams were scouring the ocean for plane crash survivors on Sunday night off the coast of Half Moon Bay. Pictured: Cliffs line the Pacific Ocean in Half Moon Bay, California, in this archive image from December 2017.

Rescue crews are searching the sea for survivors after a plane crashed off the California coast on Sunday night.

The aircraft had been making spluttering noises and was flying erratically before it plunged out of sight shortly after 7 p.m. off the coast of the city of Half Moon Bay, south of San Francisco, according to witnesses. Plane wreckage was later found in the ocean. How many people were on board or what type of plane was involved is not yet known.

The incident comes after a series of near misses between planes and deadly crashes. Earlier this month, Alaska Airlines was forced to ground an entire fleet of planes after a section of fuselage broke off in midflight.

Still, experts insist that American air travel remains safe, and, according to government figures, it is statistically safer than traveling by car.

Following Sunday's crash, emergency crews from the San Mateo County Sheriff's Office and the U.S. Coast Guard were seen at Moss Beach as they searched for plane wreckage and tried to find survivors. Photographs taken at the scene appear to show a helicopter with a searchlight scanning the waves below.

Newsweek reached out by email to the U.S. Coast Guard for further information and comment.

Reporter Gia Vang shared images from the scene on X (formerly Twitter) as the rescue operation got underway.

Local news station KGO spoke to a diner who had been enjoying a meal in a restaurant when her party saw the plane struggling in midair. "We were having dinner out on the patio, and we heard this motor engine puttering—like you hear in the movies when a plane is about to crash," Melissa Richter said.

She went on: "And you hear the engine, and it came around the corner. It's kind of a big plane, very visible. We figured something was wrong because it was so close to the restaurant.

"And then it was definitely pivoting back and forth, and then it looked like it put on the gas, went a little bit faster, then it went down and the engine cut out. Then it banked in, and we lost sight of it at that point," Richter said.

Another local news station, KTVU, reported that the plane had taken off from East Bay, a region in the San Francisco Bay Area. Visibility across the area was poor on Sunday night, according to NBC San Francisco.

Update 1/15/24, 1:55 p.m. ET: This story was updated with additional information.

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