HALF MOON BAY — Federal authorities have issued contradictory statements about how many people were believed to be aboard a small plane that crashed Sunday evening off the Half Moon Bay coast.
The Federal Aviation Administration said Tuesday that two people — a pilot and a passenger — were aboard the plane when it went down in the Pacific Ocean. On Wednesday, the National Transportation Safety Board, which is heading the investigation, said in an email to the Bay Area News Group that “reports indicate the plane was carrying the pilot and three other people.”
In another curious contradiction, the NTSB asserted that the plane had departed from the Half Moon Bay Airport before the crash. The San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office said on Monday and Tuesday that their officials believed that the plane had taken off from an East Bay airport.
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An NTSB spokesperson did not immediately respond to questions about the discrepancies.
The sheriff’s office announced Monday that a fishing boat had found the body of a woman believed to have been on board the plane. She was identified Tuesday as Emma Willmer-Shiles, 27, of San Francisco.
The NTSB said the agency’s investigators arrived at the scene on Wednesday morning to document the wreckage that had washed ashore and to interview witnesses.
The crash happened sometime in the 7 p.m. hour Sunday; the two federal agencies and the sheriff’s office all gave different specific estimated times of the incident.
