SAN DIEGO—A Navy contractor’s aircraft caught fire before it crashed off the California coast earlier this month, killing three people on board, federal investigators said Friday.
The twin-engine Gates Learjet 36A plunged into the Pacific Ocean near San Clemente Island on May 10 while trying to make an emergency landing at a Navy airfield there, according to a preliminary investigative report from the National Transportation Safety Board.
The wreckage of the plane was found underwater but the two pilots and additional crew member—all civilians—haven’t been found and are presumed dead, the report said.
The jet was one of two that took off from Point Mugu Naval Air Station in Oxnard and headed south towards San Clemente Island, which is owned by the Navy and is west of San Diego. They were going to take part in training exercises with the Navy….