Emergency crews are on the scene of a small plane that crashed into the San Joaquin River near downtown Antioch Sunday, a spokesman from the Contra Costa County Fire Protection District said.
Contra Costa County Sheriff's deputies have not located the wreckage of a Piper Cherokee single-engine plane believed to have crashed into the Delta about two miles north of Pittsburg, a sheriff's spokesman said Sunday night.
Sheriff's Office Marine Patrol officers have, since about 8:30 p.m. Sunday, been using sonar to look for submerged evidence of the plane wreckage at the north end of Broad Slough, west of Kimball Island and north of Pittsburg and Antioch, said sheriff's spokesman Jimmy Lee. The search ended for the night at about 10 p.m.
Earlier Sunday night, Contra Costa County Fire Protection District boat crews found part of the tail of a small plane floating in the water in Broad Slough, along with a backpack and some flight charts.
A boater near Broad Slough reported to the sheriff's office about 5:30 p.m. Sunday that a plane had plunged into Broad Slough about two miles north of the shore. The plane, which had been rented from Sterling Aviation, based at Buchanan Field in Concord, is believed to have taken off from that airport about 5 p.m. Sunday, Lee said.
The identity of the pilot, believed to be the only person on the plane, had not been confirmed by late Sunday night, Lee said.
The Pittsburg Police Department, the Solano County Sheriff's Office, the U.S. Coast Guard and the California Highway Patrol also helped with the search effort, Lee said. Investigators from the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board have also been contacted. Any witnesses to the crash are asked to contact the NTSB by email at witness@NTSB.GOV.
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