All three individuals aboard a small twin-engine aircraft that crashed into the Pacific Ocean near California's central coast have been confirmed dead, according to law enforcement officials.
The Monterey County Sheriff's Office announced late Sunday that all three occupants of the plane, which went down approximately 275 metres off Point Pinos, did not survive. Authorities have not yet disclosed the cause of the crash, which occurred on Saturday.
Witnesses reported hearing the plane's engine revving followed by the sound of a splash in the water, as reported by KSBW-TV. Debris from the damaged aircraft was later observed washing ashore.
The aircraft, a twin-engine Beech 95-B55 Baron, departed from San Carlos airport at 10:11 pm with three individuals on board and was last tracked at 10:37 pm near Monterey, based on flight tracking data from FlightAware.com.
Search teams located one individual in the water around 3 am. Divers recovered the other two individuals from inside the wreckage between 6:30 am and 9:15 am. The United States Coast Guard confirmed that all three were unresponsive.
The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board are set to conduct an investigation to determine the cause of the crash.
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