A dive team recovered a body Wednesday found among the wreckage of the second of two small airplanes that collided last week over the ocean off San Pedro.
The wreckage was found Monday night with the remains of a victim inside about two miles from the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. The wreckage was found by using sonar and remotely operated underwater vehicles.
Crews conducted a recovery operation Wednesday morning, attaching flotation devices to the wreckage to carry it to the ocean surface. The discovery of the third plane crash victim comes three days after the bodies of two men were found about two miles outside the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.
The plane, a Citabria, was found last night, about a mile away from where the other aircraft -- a Beech 35 Bonanza with the bodies of the pilot and passenger inside -- was located about 2 p.m. Sunday, according to the sheriff's Special Enforcement Bureau.
The crash occurred about 3:15 p.m. Friday, and a small debris field was found soon after. Both aircraft were operated out of the Torrance Municipal Airport. The crew of a fishing boat was the first to report a plane hitting the water on Friday afternoon.
Authorities have not yet released the names of the occupants of either plane, but the pilot of the Citabria was identified by her husband as Mary Falstrom, 72, of Torrance. Rich Falstrom said his wife had 25 years of experience as a pilot and was a flight attendant when she was younger.
"I'm sure she was just doing her normal routine and apparently didn't see the other plane, and they didn't see her," he said last week.
Mary Falstrom, who volunteered at the Western Museum of Flight in Torrance Municipal Airport, told her husband Friday that it was a perfect day to fly.
The two men in the second plane, ages 61 and 81, were also from the South Bay area, a Coast Guard official said. Their names were withheld pending family notification, according to the coroner's office.
