4 people aboard plane that crashed off Half Moon Bay
The single-engine plane that crashed into the waters near Half Moon Bay Sunday was carrying four people in total, according to officials from the National Transportation Safety Board.
But as of Wednesday, the body of only a single passenger, 27-year-old San Francisco resident Emma “Pearl” WillmerShiles, had been recovered since U.S. Coast Guard officials called off their search-and-rescue operation.
A commercial fishing boat found WillmerShiles’ body floating about a mile south of where crews found pieces of the plane, a four-seat plane that is classified as a “homebuilt” aircraft. Those pieces had floated to shore in the wreckage, San Mateo County Sheriff ’s Office’s officials said.
The bulk of the plane, a Cozy MK IV that took off from Hayward Executive Airport on Sunday afternoon, had still not been found as of Wednesday.
Officials from the Federal Aviation Administration said they were investigating the crash, as was the National Transportation Safety Board.
The FAA originally reported only two people were on board.
According to FlightAware, a flight tracker database, the plane took off from Hayward Executive Airport at 4:29 p.m. and landed at Half Moon Bay Airport at 5:04 p.m. According to the flight tracker, the plane made multiple loops across San Francisco
and over the Golden Gate Bridge before crossing the city to land in Half Moon Bay, two hours before it was seen in the sky again.
Witnesses near Moss Beach in Half Moon Bay then observed a plane “flying erratically” around 7:13 p.m. but shortly afterward could no longer locate the plane.
The plane was registered to a company by the name of Winged Wallabies Inc. in Oakland.