SteveinIndy
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Dana Point pilot missing on trip from Catalina to O.C.
No sign of plane or 3 people aboard that was expected to land Thursday evening.
By KIMBERLY EDDS, SERENA MARIA DANIELS and SALVADOR HERNANDEZ
The Orange County Register
Comments 34 | Recommended7
SANTA ANA The Orange County Sheriff's Department and the Coast Guard requested search and rescue assistance from an aircraft based in Sacramento this morning to help locate a missing plane that took off from Santa Catalina Island but never made its scheduled arrival in Orange County.
A C-130, the largest search and rescue aircraft available to the Coast Guard, was requested at 4 a.m.
The pilot of the single-engine, fixed-wing Bonanza, 48-year-old Mark Hogland from Dana Point, filed a flight plan with a departure from Avalon, and an arrival at John Wayne International Airport at 5:20 p.m. Thursday. The plane left Catalina but never landed at JWA. Rain and poor visibility may have been factors.
“Right now it's a massive search,” said Jim Amormino, spokesman for the Orange County Sheriff's Department.
Hogland was accompanied by a man and a woman in the plane, Amormino said. Their identities have not been released.
Hogland's fiancee first reported the missing plane to the Coast Guard at 10:30 p.m. The Coast Guard Sector in Los Angeles-Long Beach then issued an emergency broadcast and launched a helicopter to search the waters. At 12:15 a.m., the Sheriff's Department was also contacted by a family member of one of the passengers.
Authorities did not receive any communication with the plane while it was in the air, Amormino said.
The Coast Guard and Harbor Patrol spent the predawn hours today doing grid searches in the pouring rain, scouring the ocean for any sign of the missing plane and its passengers.
Investigators have also verified that the male passenger had checked in to a South County hotel before the flight. Deputies searched the room but did not find him. His vehicle was found parked at John Wayne Airport.
“Right now, we don't know a lot,” Amormino said.
According to Federal Aviation Administration records, the 1983 plane is owned by SkyBlue USA, an air-touring company based in Dana Point.
According to FAA records, it is the only aircraft registered to the Dana Point company.
In the SkyBlue USA Web site, the company lists tours of the Orange County and San Diego coastlines, as well as Catalina Island. The company is owned by Hogland, who was certified as a private pilot in October 20, 2008, according to FAA records.
In October, a man and two women died in a fiery plane crash just after taking off from Santa Catalina Island's tiny Airport in the Sky. The husband of one of the women managed to pull himself from the wreckage and survived.
Ten people have died in plane crashes after taking off or landing at Catalina Island over the past five years, according to accident databases from the National Transportation Safety Board.
Catalina's small runway is whittled out of the side of a mountain with steep cliffs on either side, making it a difficult spot to take off and land. There are no air traffic controllers.
No sign of plane or 3 people aboard that was expected to land Thursday evening.
By KIMBERLY EDDS, SERENA MARIA DANIELS and SALVADOR HERNANDEZ
The Orange County Register
Comments 34 | Recommended7
SANTA ANA The Orange County Sheriff's Department and the Coast Guard requested search and rescue assistance from an aircraft based in Sacramento this morning to help locate a missing plane that took off from Santa Catalina Island but never made its scheduled arrival in Orange County.
A C-130, the largest search and rescue aircraft available to the Coast Guard, was requested at 4 a.m.
The pilot of the single-engine, fixed-wing Bonanza, 48-year-old Mark Hogland from Dana Point, filed a flight plan with a departure from Avalon, and an arrival at John Wayne International Airport at 5:20 p.m. Thursday. The plane left Catalina but never landed at JWA. Rain and poor visibility may have been factors.
“Right now it's a massive search,” said Jim Amormino, spokesman for the Orange County Sheriff's Department.
Hogland was accompanied by a man and a woman in the plane, Amormino said. Their identities have not been released.
Hogland's fiancee first reported the missing plane to the Coast Guard at 10:30 p.m. The Coast Guard Sector in Los Angeles-Long Beach then issued an emergency broadcast and launched a helicopter to search the waters. At 12:15 a.m., the Sheriff's Department was also contacted by a family member of one of the passengers.
Authorities did not receive any communication with the plane while it was in the air, Amormino said.
The Coast Guard and Harbor Patrol spent the predawn hours today doing grid searches in the pouring rain, scouring the ocean for any sign of the missing plane and its passengers.
Investigators have also verified that the male passenger had checked in to a South County hotel before the flight. Deputies searched the room but did not find him. His vehicle was found parked at John Wayne Airport.
“Right now, we don't know a lot,” Amormino said.
According to Federal Aviation Administration records, the 1983 plane is owned by SkyBlue USA, an air-touring company based in Dana Point.
According to FAA records, it is the only aircraft registered to the Dana Point company.
In the SkyBlue USA Web site, the company lists tours of the Orange County and San Diego coastlines, as well as Catalina Island. The company is owned by Hogland, who was certified as a private pilot in October 20, 2008, according to FAA records.
In October, a man and two women died in a fiery plane crash just after taking off from Santa Catalina Island's tiny Airport in the Sky. The husband of one of the women managed to pull himself from the wreckage and survived.
Ten people have died in plane crashes after taking off or landing at Catalina Island over the past five years, according to accident databases from the National Transportation Safety Board.
Catalina's small runway is whittled out of the side of a mountain with steep cliffs on either side, making it a difficult spot to take off and land. There are no air traffic controllers.
