Helicopter missing off Encinitas

[Heliport]

San Diego Union Tribune reportENCINITAS Hours after a helicopter piloted by an off-duty news cameraman disappeared over the Pacific Ocean, a search crew recovered a seat cushion from the aircraft.

The Coast Guard found the cushion Monday night, about 10 hours after Sean O'Kane, 35, left Montgomery Field in San Diego for Long Beach. The cushion was floating about a mile off the coast of Encinitas in north San Diego County, Coast Guard spokeswoman Jamie Devitt-Chacon said.

"It has been positively identified as belonging to the helicopter but no other debris has been found, so we're still searching," she said.

O'Kane, a Navy reservist, works for KFMB-TV of San Diego.

Moments after takeoff, O'Kane asked air traffic controllers for permission to increase his altitude from 100 feet to 400 feet to get out of clouds, said Carlsbad police Lt. Kelly Cain. Controllers then lost contact with the pilot.

No one else was believed to be on board the aircraft.

O'Kane leased the chopper from Corporate Helicopters of San Diego, and had logged 70 hours flying time, KFMB reported.

"He has a lot of experience flying with us," Ivor Shier, owner of Corporate Helicopters, told KFMB.

KFMB reportPHOTOGRAPHER, HELICOPTER MISSING OFF ENCINITAS

A small oil slick found a mile off Moonlight Beach in Encinitas Monday is being tested for signs of aviation fuel after the disappearance of a helicopter whose pilot, a LOCAL 8 photographer, asked for permission to climb out of an offshore cloud bank.

The U.S. Coast Guard and North County law enforcement agencies searched for the aircraft and its pilot, Sean O’Kane, after he had not arrived at his destination in Long Beach, according to Rich Dann of the Coast Guard.

O’Kane left Montgomery Field after 10:30 a.m. Monday morning. He had asked controllers at McClellan Palomar Airport for permission to increase the helicopter’s altitude from 100 to 400 feet to get out of clouds, said Carlsbad police Lt. Kelly Cain. Moments later, controllers lost contact with the aircraft.

[Time Out]

The San Diego Union-Tribune report:

TV photographer at controls of helicopter missing

By Mark Arner and David Graham
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITERS

August 26, 2003

A television news photographer was missing yesterday after a private helicopter he was flying apparently crashed into the ocean about 3 miles west of Encinitas.

The pilot was identified yesterday as Sean O'Kane, 35, an employee for two years of KFMB Channel 8, according to news director Fred D'Ambrosi. He was not on assignment at the time of the crash.

O'Kane was making a solo training flight from San Diego's Montgomery Field to Long Beach to complete requirements to obtain a private pilot's license, said a spokesman for the firm that owns the aircraft.

O'Kane is single and a native of Dublin, Ireland, D'Ambrosi said.

"Obviously, we just hope for the best," D'Ambrosi said, "but it doesn't look good because he's been missing since about 10:30 a.m."

Renee Sanchez, a KFMB news reporter who worked with O'Kane, said he is well-liked at the station.

"Sean O'Kane made getting to work for the early-morning shift a pleasure," Sanchez said. "He was always in a good mood, and ready with an Irish quip. And he was always ready to hustle for the story.

"He took care of us reporters. I always felt safe going out on the streets of San Diego at 5 a.m. with Sean O'Kane watching my back. He has a real passion for the job."

Searchers found a seat cushion from the helicopter about a mile offshore from Encinitas late in the afternoon, said Coast Guard Petty Officer Jamie Devitt-Chacon.

Lifeguards on several jet skis, a Coast Guard cutter and a Coast Guard helicopter began searching the surf just west of Moonlight Beach in Encinitas at about 1:30 p.m. yesterday after several patches of an oily substance were spotted in the ocean.

Dawn Sewade, a Coast Guard spokeswoman, said at 5:30 p.m. yesterday that tests had failed to determine whether the substance matched the type of fuel used in the helicopter that O'Kane had been flying.

Sewade said lifeguards from several local and state agencies were helping the Coast Guard to search a 35-square-mile area, including 64 miles of coastline.

The Air Force Auxiliary Civil Air Patrol joined the search with two aircraft and four teams of two volunteers on the ground. They wrapped up their efforts about 9 p.m. after investigating one emergency locator transmitter that proved to be a false alarm emitted from a boat in storage, said air patrol spokesman Erik Fulkerson.

Fulkerson said O'Kane contacted air traffic controllers at Palomar Airport shortly after 10 a.m. yesterday to request clearance to change his altitude from 100 feet to 400 feet to avoid a fog patch. A blip on the trackers' radar screens representing the helicopter vanished minutes later.

The missing helicopter is a two-seat training aircraft manufactured by Robinson, said Ivor Shier, president of Corporate Helicopters of San Diego, the firm that owns the aircraft.

Shier said the flight left Montgomery Field at 9:50 a.m. headed to Long Beach, where O'Kane planned to complete a "check ride," the final step needed to obtain a private pilot's license. He had logged 70 hours of flight time – more than was required for the license, Shier said.

"He had enough experience to do what he was doing," Shier said.

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