KFMB-TV photographer missing
By Dan Trigoboff -- Broadcasting & Cable, 8/26/2003 12:30:00 PM
While Coast Guard and other law enforcement agencies searching for KFMB-TV photographer Sean O'Kane, missing since Monday morning, continued to refer to their efforts as a "rescue," by Tuesday his colleagues had accepted that O'Kane had all but certainly perished in a crash.
The Navy reservist was flying alone on a day off in a rented helicopter which apparently went down off the coast of North San Diego County while flying north for a training session in Long Beach.
Searchers had found only a small oil slick and some debris by mid-day Tuesday.
During his flight up the Southern California coast Monday morning, O'Kane asked air traffic controllers for permission to increase his altitude to get out of a cloud bank, but lost contact with them shortly after.
He did not arrived in Long Beach as planned Monday, and authorities were concerned about a small oil slick and some debris found near the shore.
Witnesses in the Encinitas area told KNSD they heard sounds of an engine backfiring and sputtering.
Flying was a hobby for O'Kane.
KFMB News Director Fred D'Ambrosi said that some of the staff from KFMB-TV and from KNSD(TV), where O'Kane had worked previously, went to the Moonlight Beach area near Encinitas Monday night to look out on the search "and to grieve."
The mood there was somber and many were already fearing the worst.
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