Investigation continues into plane missing off San Diego coast

Montgomery-Gibbs Airport File image courtesy City of San Diego A National Transportation Safety Board probe is underway Thursday after a four-seat plane owned by Peter Schultz a chemist and chief executive of the Scripps Research Institute went missing while piloted by a friend who was released unresponsive while en course to San Diego Montgomery-Gibbs Airport The plane a single-engine Cessna T Corvalis TTx took off from Ramona Airport Sunday afternoon and is presumed to have been destroyed after crashing into the Pacific Ocean about miles off the coast of San Diego according to the Aviation Safety Arrangement a global database for tracking accidents Around p m Sunday the pilot checked in with Montgomery-Gibbs tower for landing About five minutes later he was cleared to land at runway R but he gave no response and the airplane continued flying west at an altitude of feet and continued beyond the track the ASN disclosed The identity of the pilot has not yet been distributed but according to a announcement from the Scripps Research Institute he was a friend of Schultz and presumed to be the solo occupant of the plane No survivors or remnants of the plane were promptly communicated