Plane Wreckage Removed From Redwood Shores, Cause Still a Mystery

Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board are working to determine what caused a small plane to crash into the Redwood Shores Lagoon on Thursday.

The remnants of the aircraft, a Beech 65 Queen Air, were removed from the lagoon on Friday and are being transported to a facility in

Sacramento where they will be examined.

NTSB air safety investigator Michael Huhn said Saturday the key parts of the plane have been recovered from the water.

"All the components to date have been accounted for," Huhn said. "The engines did separate on impact but they were recovered as well."

The aircraft plunged into the lagoon near Twin Dolphin Drive shortly before noon on Thursday, killing all three people on board, two men and a woman.

One of the men has been identified by colleagues as 91-year-old Robert Borrmann, the founder of R.E. Borrmann's Steel Co. in East Palo Alto.

The San Mateo County coroner's office on Friday identified the woman as 47-year-old Daly City resident Adelina Urbina-Suarez. The second man's name has not yet been released.

The crash happened just after the plane took off from the nearby San Carlos Airport. It reached an altitude of about 652 feet before it went down, Huhn said.

He said the pilot had been in contact with air traffic controllers and had planned to turn to the left but ended up traveling right, according to witness statements.

The plane then took a nosedive into the lagoon.

Urbina-Suarez' body was found in the water shortly after the crash. The two men remained strapped in the plane, Huhn said, and their

bodies were recovered Friday after the wreckage was removed from the lagoon.

Investigators have not yet determined what went wrong. He said a preliminary report on the crash will be posted on the NTSB's website within 10 days and a final report will be issued in six to nine months.

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