REDWOOD SHORES, Calif. (AP) — A 40-year-old woman was found dead next to the wreckage of a small plane that crashed Thursday in a lagoon off San Francisco Bay, officials said. Divers were searching for two more people who may have been on board.
Redwood City Fire Battalion Chief Dave Pucci says the twin-engine Beechcraft crashed at 11:53 a.m. Thursday in a lagoon in the city's Redwood Shores neighborhood, near the offices of Oracle Corp.
The plane took off minutes earlier from San Carlos airport about a mile away.
Pucci said divers who reached the wreckage found no one else inside the plane and were searching the dark, murky waters for two other people who may have been on board.
Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Lynn Lunsford said the agency was aware of the crash and sending investigators.
Diana DeFrank said she was eating lunch with her daughter at a nearby restaurant when she heard the plane hit the water. She left the restaurant and saw the plane floating for a few minutes before it began to sink.
Three or four passers-by jumped into the water in an effort to rescue any passengers, she said, but were unable to do so.
About two hours after the plane crashed, only a few inches of the aircraft was visible above the water.
The U.S. Coast Guard said it was sending a team to evaluate reports of pollution coming from the plane.
Last week, the same lagoon made headlines when 48,000-gallons of raw sewage spilled into it from a burst pipe. County officials have barred access to its waters because of high amounts of E.coli and other bacteria.
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Associated Press writers Terence Chea and Jason Dearen contributed to this report from San Francisco.
