Third Person not on Board Tomarken’s Flight, Investigators Conclude

By Olin Ericksen
Staff Writer

March 14 -- Rescue crews called off the search for a third victim that appears to have never been aboard yesterday's plane crash in Santa Monica Bay that killed former game show host Peter Tomarken and his wife.

"We're 99.9 percent sure there was no one else on board," said Mike Fergus, a spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration.

The search continued into yesterday afternoon because it was unclear how many people were actually aboard the flight at take off, according to investigators.

Tomarken registered three people in his flight plan from Santa Monica to San Diego, and investigators received reports that Santa Monica Airport controllers monitoring distress signals from the plane may have been told that there were three people aboard when it was going down.

Now Los Angeles County Fire Department officials are dismissing communications between the tower and Tomarken, the pilot, who reportedly indicated a third person was on board the aircraft as it was rapidly descending into the ocean.

Adding to the confusion, many non-commercial flights do not have to register accurate logs of who will be on the plane at take off.

It appears that Tomarken -- who was heading down to San Diego to pick up a medical patient for Angel's Flight Program, a charity organization -- was designating the patient as a third passenger who he had yet to pick up.

Investigators said unless other evidence comes to light -- such as a family member who steps forward to say their relative was on the flight -- they are confident only two people lost their lives in the crash.

Other factors, such as the shallowness of the water where the wreck was found, led investigators to reasonably conclude that reports of a third person on board were false.

The pilot, Tomarken, apparently was trying to make an emergency landing on Santa Monica Beach eight minutes into the flight, but only made it as far as 200 yards offshore where the plane went down. (see story)