CARLSBAD -- A four-seat Cessna airplane crashed off the coast of Carlsbad shortly after taking off from McClellan-Palomar Airport Sunday morning, killing two female passengers and leaving a third male passenger missing, authorities said.

Update: Coast Guard ends search for body from plane

The San Diego County Medical Examiner's office did not release the names of the dead or missing by late Sunday night. According to data from the Federal Aviation Administration, the Cessna was registered to a man named Leroy F. Kochert, who has a Phoenix address.

A Coast Guard crew suspended its search for the missing passenger at 6 p.m. Sunday, and the crash is under investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board, officials said. Calls to the home of a Leroy Kochert in Phoenix went unanswered Sunday.

A spokesman with the Federal Aviation Administration said the plane, a propeller-driven Cessna model 182Q built in 1979, left McClellan-Palomar Airport at 9:45 a.m., headed west, then crashed into the ocean at approximately 9:50 a.m. The crash occurred in deep water about one mile from shore.

An FAA spokesman said he would not speculate about the cause of the crash. Weather officials said a heavy marine layer blanketed the coast at the time of the crash.

Coast Guard officials and local lifeguards from Oceanside, Carlsbad, Solana Beach and Encinitas said boaters saw the plane go down and reported the accident to emergency personnel.

"I don't know if they heard (the distress call) over the radio, but three or four (boaters) saw the plane go down," said Petty Officer Anastasia Devlin, Coast Guard spokeswoman. The Coast Guard did not receive a mayday call, she added.

Dave Wagner, seasonal supervisor of Oceanside's lifeguard department, said Sunday that he arrived at the wreck about 10 minutes after it was reported.

"The first thing we noticed was the debris," he said. "There were wheels and parts of the fuselage and personal items floating in the water. It was pretty horrific to see," Wagner said.

Encinitas lifeguard Capt. Larry Giles said lifeguard Lt. Paul Chapman and senior lifeguard Joe Gaydos were the first to arrive at the crash site.

"They were able to grab two of the deceased," and put them aboard a fishing vessel that had arrived at the site of the crash, Giles said.

Chapman assessed the victims and pronounced them both dead, Giles said.

Though the wreckage sunk deep into the water, the crash left a field of debris floating in the area, including a wallet and flight log recovered by authorities, Giles said.

"Apparently for a while, (the plane was) submerged, then debris started floating up," he said.

News of the crash sent three lifeguards scrambling from the Solana Beach lifeguard station at Fletcher Cove.

Lt. Jason Shook said that when he and his two fellow lifeguards arrived at the site shortly after 10 a.m., it became apparent that recovering the plane would be difficult.

"The water out there was like 180 or 200 feet deep," Shook said, peeling off a dive suit after riding north to Oceanside harbor.

Shook said the scene on the water Sunday was grim.

"They recovered the bodies relatively quickly, but they were obviously deceased," Shook said.

Shortly after lifeguard teams arrived, two cutters and a helicopter with the U.S. Coast Guard arrived and continued to search for the Cessna's third passenger.

After searching for what Wagner estimated was "about two hours," one of the two cutters headed north to Oceanside Harbor where the Coast Guard maintains a small office and dock large enough to accommodate Coast Guard Cutter Petrel, a 109-foot vessel.

A somber scene unfolded in the harbor as grim-faced Coast Guard officers tied up to the dock and waited for a representative from the coroner's office to arrive. A small group of curious visitors watched as two wrapped bodies were carefully transferred from the Petrel into two white vans.

Wagner said searching the wreckage for the third occupant was frustrating.

"It's frustrating and it's disappointing. We like happy endings, and this one wasn't happy," Wagner said.

Allen Kenitzer, a spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration, said Sunday that the crash will be investigated by his agency and the National Transportation Safety Board.

"The NTSB looks for the accident's cause, and the FAA looks at records for the plane and for the pilot," Kenitzer said, adding that investigations can take up to one year.

He said that airplane accidents that occur in deep water are more difficult to investigate.

"If you have no aircraft because it's under water, that makes it certainly more difficult," Kenitzer said.

At the time of the crash, waves were 1 to 2 feet and the weather was extremely overcast, with a thick marine layer, Giles said.

National Weather Service meteorologist Dan Atkin said the Carlsbad airport reported cloudy, hazy skies with four miles of visibility on the ground. The base of the cloud cover was 700 feet from the ground and it was not windy, he said.

Contact Sarah Wilkins at (760) 761-4414 or swilkins@nctimes.com. Contact staff writer Paul Sisson at (760) 901-4087 or psisson@nctimes.com. Comment at nctimes.com.