Missing Pilot Stone Froberg, 71, 3-6-09 Crashed off San Diego [SEARCH SUSPENDED]

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http://www.examiner.com/a-1891005~Search_on_for_missing_pilot__71__after_SoC al_crash.html

Search on for missing pilot, 71, after SoCal crash

Mar 7, 2009 3:14 PM (11 mins ago) AP

OCEANSIDE, Calif.
Map data ©2009 Tele Atlas - Terms of UseMapSatelliteHybridOCEANSIDE, Calif. (Map, News) - Rescue boats combed the waters on Saturday for a 71-year-old pilot whose small rented plane crashed off the San Diego County coast.

Three U.S. Coast Guard vessels, including a 210-foot cutter, searched an area about 25 miles off the coast and about halfway between Oceanside and San Clemente Island, Petty Officer 1st Class Allyson Conroy said.

A helicopter was sent up in the morning but returned without spotting anyone, she said.

A civilian vessel reported seeing a plane hit the water Friday afternoon and searchers later found aluminum debris and an oil slick.

Stone Froberg, 71, of San Diego, was believed to have been alone in the plane, Conroy said.

There was no sign of him by noon Saturday but the weather was clear and the water temperature was in the high 50s, Conroy said.

"A person would be able to survive in the water up to about 16 hours," she said.

The pilot checked out a red-and-white, single-engine Cessna 172 from the Golden Wings Flying Club at Montgomery Field in San Diego and the rented plane was registered to Blossom Valley Aviation LLC, said Ian Gregor, a spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration.

Although he did not file a formal flight plan, the pilot indicated he was going to make a round trip to French Valley, about 60 miles north, and return around 5 p.m. Friday.

The pilot was not planning to talk to air traffic controllers during his flight, and the FAA did not receive any mayday calls from pilots in the San Diego area, Gregor said.

Oceanside is about 35 miles north of San Diego.

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http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/mar/07/bn07plane-crash-oceanside/?zIndex=63568

Pilot of missing plane identified as San Diego engineer

By Greg Gross (Contact) Union-Tribune Staff Writer
12:22 p.m. March 7, 2009

The Coast Guard has identified the pilot whose rented light plane is believed to have crashed in the Pacific Ocean about 35 miles off Oceanside on Friday afternoon.

The pilot of the single-engine Cessna 172 was identified as Stone Froberg, a 70-year-old electrical engineer from San Diego. His family has been notified, said Coast Guard Lt. Joshua Nelson. The plane had been rented Friday from the Golden Wings Flying Club, he said.

Froberg took off from Montgomery Field at 11:46 a.m. He had given his destination as French Valley Airport, just east of Murrieta Hot Springs, about 50 miles inland and about 60 miles north of San Diego. He had not filed a flight plan, Nelson said.

At about 2 p.m., a boater reported seeing an airplane crash into the ocean. A Coast Guard air and sea search found debris floating in the water, bits of aluminum and Styrofoam, as well as an oil slick, but nothing identifiable, Nelson said.

The Coast Guard resumed searching the waters off San Clemente on Saturday morning using three vessels and a helicopter. According to Nelson, the ocean water temperature in the area where the plane is believed to have crashed is in the 50s, which would give a person “about 16 to 24 hours of useful consciousness.”

Family members told authorities Froberg was a relatively new pilot who sometimes took Friday sightseeing flights, taking off from San Diego and flying to a different airport, then returning to San Diego the next day.

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http://www.northcountytimes.com/articles/2009/03/07/news/coastal/oceanside/z067ee0242f09864e88257572006c263d.txt

OCEANSIDE: Search suspended for survivor of plane crash

Pilot, believed solo, was flying to French Valley

Saturday, March 7, 2009 3:08 PM PST

The Coast Guard suspended the search Saturday for survivors of a light plane that crashed into the Pacific Ocean on Friday, about 35 miles of the coast of Oceanside.

The plane is believed to have departed from Montgomery Field in San Diego Friday morning, piloted by 71-year-old Stone Froberg of San Diego, Coast Guard officials said.

No one else is believed to have been on board, Coast Guard spokesman Lt. Josh Nelson said.

Nelson said the search was suspended about 12:30 p.m. Saturday because there was little chance anyone could have survived 22 hours in the 59-degree water. He said that after 18 hours, the strongest adult would succumb to hypothermia.

The search, involving three Coast Guard boats and a helicopter, began a little after 2 p.m. Friday, when boaters reported seeing a small plane nose-dive into the ocean, Nelson said.

Searchers found an oil slick and small pieces of debris that suggested no one could have survived the impact, Nelson said.

He said the owner of a San Diego-based plane-rental business had described a missing plane to the Coast Guard. The pieces found in the ocean matched the owner's description, he said.

Froberg, the pilot of the missing plane, took off from Montgomery Field in San Diego in the rented single-engine Cessna 172N at 11:46 a.m., Nelson said.

The plane was manufactured in 1979 and is registered to Blossom Valley Aviation in El Cajon, Federal Aviation Administration registration records show.

Froberg, a licensed pilot with 12 years flight experience, told personnel at the Golden Wings Flying Club, where he rented the plane, that he was planning to fly to French Valley, Nelson said.

Tim Tesh, president of the Golden Wings Flying Club, which rents planes to members, said he could not comment on the crash Saturday except to say the business was cooperating with the Coast Guard and Federal Aviation Administration.

FAA spokesman Ian Gregor said Froberg did not return to San Diego as expected around 5 p.m. Friday, and a search of the French Valley Airport did not turn up his plane. The pilot apparently did not plan to communicate with air traffic controllers during his flight, and the FAA received no mayday calls.

Though Froberg is believed to have been the only person on board, he did not file a flight plan and investigators were interviewing people at Montgomery Field Saturday to confirm that Froberg left alone, Nelson said.

Nelson said that Froberg's next-of-kin are adult children who live in California.

The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the crash.

[Roamer]

http://www.abc3340.com/news/stories/0309/601659.html

Search suspended for missing SoCal pilot



OCEANSIDE, Calif. - The U.S. Coast Guard suspended its search Saturday for a 71-year-old pilot whose small rented plane crashed off the San Diego County coast. The single-engine Cessna 172 was being flown by Stone Froberg, of San Diego, who was believed to be the only occupant of the plane.

Three Coast Guard vessels spent the morning searching an area about 25 miles off the coast and about halfway between Oceanside and San Clemente Island, Petty Officer 1st Class Allyson Conroy said. A helicopter also was used in the search.

Froberg checked out the red-and-white plane from the Golden Wings Flying Club at Montgomery Field in San Diego, and the rented aircraft was registered to Blossom Valley Aviation LLC, said Ian Gregor, a spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration.








Although he did not file a formal flight plan, Froberg indicated he was going to make a round trip to French Valley, about 60 miles north, and return around 5 p.m. Friday.

A civilian vessel reported seeing a plane hit the water Friday afternoon and searchers later found aluminum debris and an oil slick.

The FAA (web (http://cfc.abc3340.com/externalwebsite.cfm?website=http://www.faa.gov) | news (http://cfc.abc3340.com/mainsearch.cfm?s=key&k=faa)) did not receive any mayday calls from pilots in the San Diego area, Gregor said.

Oceanside is about 35 miles north of San Diego.

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http://www.aero-news.net/index.cfm?ContentBlockID=b6d94294-0ac2-43cc-9b71-4e5e8725107e

Search Suspended For Pilot Missing Off SoCal Coast

Mon, 09 Mar '09

Boater Reported Plane Down In Ocean Friday Afternoon

Coast Guard officials have halted their search for a pilot missing off the coast of southern California since Friday, saying it's unlikely the man survived in the cool ocean waters.

The San Diego Union-Tribune reports Stone Froberg rented a Cessna 172 from the Golden Wings Flying Club at Montgomery Field (MYF) late Friday morning. The 70-year-old, recently-certificated pilot did not file a flight plan, but told acquaintances he planned to fly to French Valley Airport (F70) near Murrieta/Temecula, about 46 nautical miles north, and back to MYF by late afternoon.

Froberg reportedly took off at 11:46 am PST. Straight as the crow flies, that route does not go over the Pacific... but family members said the electronic engineer often took sightseeing jaunts on Fridays.

A boater 35 miles off the coast reported seeing a plane crash into the ocean at about 2 pm, and Coast Guard search crews were dispatched. A few hours later, searchers found debris off the coast of San Clemente, and an oil slick.

Crews resumed their search Saturday in the waters off San Clemente... but suspended the search by noon. Coast Guard Lt. Joshua Nelson said the water temperature was between 50-60 degrees Fahrenheit, giving a person "about 16 to 24 hours of useful consciousness."

[BlueTick]

There's been a lot of crashes on the SoCal coast this year. Just a few days ago Coast Guard officials said they have called off the search for potential survivors of a midair collision between two military aircraft off the coast of San Diego.