A Cessna T240 aircraft that lifted off Sunday from the Ramona Airport in San Diego County has been lost over the Pacific Ocean.
The aircraft is a single engine, four-seat plane that is registered to Peter G. Schultz, a well-known San Diego scientist and the CEO of Scripps Research in La Jolla. On Monday, staff at Scripps Research said that Schultz was not on the plane, which he had lent to someone else.
KPBS has been unable to confirm the name of the man who piloted the plane or find out who else may have been on board. But Schultz told communications staff at Scripps Research that the man flying the plane was a friend and a “very experienced pilot.”
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said it had cleared the Cessna to land at San Diego’s Montgomery-Gibbs Executive Airport, known as Montgomery Field. But shortly after takeoff the FAA said it lost contact with the plane.
On Monday, the Coast Guard said they were using aircraft to search an area about 400 miles off the San Diego coast, with the help of the Navy and the Marines. They searched 2,600 square miles of ocean over three days.
The search was suspended Tuesday afternoon.
San Diegans who monitor air traffic frequencies said the small aircraft got the attention of authorities when it flew across airspace reserved for the San Diego International Airport.
