Two Dream Machine planes collide returning home after event

Half Moon Bay Review/Clay Lambert, 4/28/14.  "Dream Machine planes collide over San Pablo Bay."

"Emergency officials have located a missing Cessna that collided with another aircraft over San Pablo Bay. Both planes in the accident departed Sunday afternoon from the Pacific Coast Dream Machines event at the Half Moon Bay Airport.  ....   Little detail has been provided on the Cessna pilot, who officials so far have declined to identify. The pilot was "presumed fatally injured", according to an incident summary by Federal Aviation Administration officials.

Cessna 210 (above) spiraled into San Pablo Bay, no survivor;
Hawker Sea Fury TMK 20 (below), there were survivors.

The other airplane involved in the collision, a Hawker Sea Fury TMK 20, landed safely later Sunday afternoon, according to an Federal Aviation Administration spokesman.  The crash occurred at 4:05 p.m., according to FAA spokesman Ian Gregor. He said the Hawker landed 40 minutes later at a small airport in Amador County. The occupants of that plane were not injured, Gregor said.

....  More than 150 unique aircraft were featured at the Sunday aeronautics event, but an unknown number of other "fly-in" planes also landed at the airport for the festivities, Beeman said. "Dream Machines has an incredibly safe track record over the years. We've had minimal incidents," he said. "No one know what the pilots were doing. Until that's found out, it remains a horribly tragic accident."  Read more.

Related articles -  San Francisco Chronicle/Carolyn Jones, Jill Tucker and Evan Seroffsky, 4/28/14. "Rescuers seek pilot after planes collide near San Pablo Bay."   ....  "The planes were at the Pacific Coast Dream Machines event in Half Moon Bay on Sunday. The Hawker, called Dreadnought, was reportedly one of the featured war birds at the event, an annual festival that included a variety of planes, motorcycles, cars and other tricked-out vehicles.

 ....  Rescuers seek pilot after planes collide near San Pablo Bay." ....  Rescue teams in boats and helicopters searched the water for the pilot of a 1965 Cessna 210 after the 4:05 p.m. crash and found only debris, said Coast Guard Lt. Jeannie Crump.  .... Witnesses at Point San Pablo Yacht Harbor said the Cessna spiraled out of control and crashed into water after the collision."  Note:  article includes 11 photographs, and CBS SF Bay Area, Channel 5 news video, 3:35 minutes. 

NY Daily News/Associated Press, 4/27/14. "Cessna collides with Hawker Sea Fury crashes in California bay."  "...  The Hawker Sea Fury TMK 20, a Korean War-era British fighter, landed safely, but the Cessna 210 crashed in the water. The coast guard is searching for the pilot."   Note:  the article includes an area map, CBS SF Bay Area, channel 5 news (6:03 AM) video 2:42 minutes. and the above stock photos by Scott Germain/Stocktrek Imagtes via Getty Images, are from this article. 

Posted by Kathy Meeh