October 31, 2009 Navy and and Coast Guard continue search off southern CA Play video

(NECN/APTV/US COAST GUARD) - Military aircraft and ships searched the ocean off Southern California on Friday for any sign of survivors after a collision between a Coast Guard plane and a Marine helicopter that has left nine people missing.

In San Diego, crews of Navy ships, Coast Guard cutters and helicopters plan to keep searching the ocean even though nearly a full day has passed since the accident.

Captain Tom Farris, commander of the Coast Guard's San Diego sector, said searchers have "every hope" of finding survivors. "We're still in the search and rescue phase. We are not standing down from that at this point," he told the media.

The search covered 644 square miles of ocean but focused on a debris field 50 miles off the San Diego coast.

The crash involved a Coast Guard C-130 plane with a seven-member crew and a Marine Corps AH-1W Super Cobra helicopter with two aboard as it flew in formation near the Navy's San Clemente Island, a site with training ranges for amphibious, air, surface and undersea warfare.

It was not known whether the pilots were aware of each other before the collision on Thursday night.

The identities of the crew members were not immediately known.

The C-130 crew had survival gear aboard the aircraft, including exposure suits that could have allowed them to survive in the water for hours.