A PLANE has crashed off the coast of California, sparking a frantic search.
Witnesses said the aircraft came down on Sunday night after hearing its engine sputtering.
ABC 7A plane has crashed off the coast of California[/caption]
Cops and Coast Guard teams surveying the sceneABC 7
A search effort is underway after a two-prop plane reportedly crashed into the Pacific Ocean near Half Moon Bay Airport in Moss Beach, per the NBC affiliate KNTV.
Cops revealed they found the wreckage in the water just after 11pm local time.
It’s not known how many people were on board the aircraft.
Cops in San Mateo County, nor Coast Guard officials have revealed if there are any survivors or fatalities.
Diners at a restaurant have spoken about the plane’s final moments before it came down in the water.
“We were having dinner out on the patio, and we heard this motor engine puttering — like you hear in the movies, when a plane is about to crash,” Melissa Richter, a tourist from Maine, told KGO.
“And you hear the engine, and it came around the corner. It’s kind of a big plane, very visible.”
Richter said the plane was pivoting “back and forth” and appeared to accelerate before coming down.
“Then it looked like it put on the gas, went a little bit faster, then it went down and the engine cut out. Then it banked in, and we lost sight of it at that point,” she added.
The crash comes just months after a Viking Air DHC-6 Twin Otter plane went down in the Pacific Ocean, per KRON.
A pilot and a passenger were killed, officials at the National Transportation Safety Board confirmed.
The plane crashed in the Pacific Ocean after taking off from Santa Rosa.
Officials revealed the aircraft was about four hours into its flight to Honolulu before the pilot reported fuel supply issues.
The pilot tried to return to California but the plane was last seen around 33 miles from the coastline.
The NTSB report concluded: “Examination of the wreckage in the water revealed that the fuselage was inverted, and the wings and engines separated from the airplane.”
Moss Beach is located around 20 miles from San Francisco.
The U.S. Sun has approached The U.S. Coast Guard for comment.
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