Plane Crashes With 3 Aboard Near San Clemente Island

SAN DIEGO, CA — A plane crashed with three men on board a mile southwest of San Clemente Island, according to the U.S. Coast Guard.

The agency received the report around 8 a.m. Wednesday of the downed Phoenix Air Learjet, a Coast Guard spokesperson said. The plane was a civilian aircraft with civilian personnel on board that had been contracted by the U.S. Navy and took off Wednesday morning from Point Mugu, according to the spokesperson.

The Coast Guard launched an MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter aircrew for search and rescue efforts, the agency tweeted shortly before 9 a.m. Around 10:30 a.m., the Coast Guard tweeted that its crews, along with U.S. Navy and border protection personnel, had discovered aircraft debris in the area.

There have been several fatal crashes around the island during military training exercises in recent years. In 2020, eight Marines from Camp Pendleton and one Navy sailor were killed when an amphibious assault vehicle sank July 30 near San Clemente Island. Less than a month later, two soldiers were killed in a Black Hawk helicopter crash during training on the island.

Due to a reporting error, an earlier version of this story misidentified the downed plane. It is a civilian aircraft, according to the U.S. Coast Guard.