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Search and Rescue Continues For Missing Airmen

Search and Rescue Continues For Missing Airmen
The Coast Guard is not giving up in its search for survivors of the aircraft crash that occurred off the coast of San Diego last night.

The Coast Guard is not giving up in its search for survivors of the aircraft crash that occurred off the coast of San Diego last night.

Coast Guard helicopters have come down from Oregon and Los Angeles to help the search and rescue operation. So far there is no sign of the seven crew of the Coast Guard C-130 aircraft or the two navy crew of a Huey helicopter which collided around dusk last night.

Henry Dunphy of the Coast Guard said the weather was calm last night when the crash occurred and is still conducive to survival. The debris field is large and they are searching 650 square miles of ocean.

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"We're still hoping to find some survivors out there." he said, "Obviously it's difficult as we're a small service like this, when we have a plane go down and we're going to keep searching with that hope."

Dunphy said the Coast Guard crew was out of Sacramento but they were quite familiar with the airspace off San Diego and the fact that Navy aircraft often train there.

He said the C-130 left Sacramento at 2 p.m. yesterday and had been airborne for five hours when the collision occurred. They were searching for a boater in a small skiff. A separate search for that boater also continues.