The National Transportation Safety Board said it will continue working to determine why a Cessna 414 with six people on board crashed off the coast of Point Loma on Sunday – but it does not expect to have any updates on the crash until it publishes its preliminary report about a month from now.
With the wreckage still resting under a couple hundred feet of water, the NTSB’s investigator isn’t even immediately traveling to where the plane crashed about three miles off the coast of Point Loma.
Meanwhile, the Coast Guard suspended their search for the wreckage of the small plane on Tuesday.
Authorities have not officially identified the six people who died in the crash. However, according to the Arizona Republic, they have been named in community reports – and a GoFundMe page – as Ayden Bingham, 21, and his father Jeremy, 48, along with brothers Bailey, 26, and Gavin, 24, the pilot, Landon Baldwin and his wife, Torrie Baldwin.
All six were from the Gila Valley area of Arizona, the online Gila Herald news agency reported. Their bodies have not been recovered.
The plane was scheduled to return to Arizona on Sunday, one day after it flew out to San Diego. A natural supplements company called Optimal Health Systems based in Pima, Arizona, said it sold the plane in 2023 to a group of individuals who are part of their small community.
Air traffic controllers quickly became concerned about the plane after it failed to climb over 1,000 feet or turn back east after taking off. The pilot reported having trouble climbing and maintaining his heading, then repeatedly called out “Mayday” before the plane disappeared from radar.
This crash came just weeks after a small Cessna crashed into a Murphy Canyon neighborhood in foggy weather, also killing six people.
Those two are just the latest in a string of deadly crashes, mishaps and near misses in aviation this year ever since an airliner collided with an Army helicopter over Washington, D.C., in January, killing 67 people.
The Associated Press and City News Service contributed to this report.
Updated 3:50 p.m. June 11, 2025
