October 31, 2009 Coast Guard identifies 9 missing in midair crash

SAN DIEGO (AP) - The Coast Guard has identified nine people feared dead at sea following an air collision between a Coast Guard aircraft and a Marine Corps helicopter.

Searchers have found no survivors and no bodies in a debris field from the Thursday evening crash. They were still considering the mission search and rescue Saturday morning.

All seven crew members of a Coast Guard C-130 airplane are stationed at the Coast Guard Air Station in Sacramento, Calif. The aircraft commander, 35-year-old Lt. Cmdr. Che Barnes, is from Capay, Calif. His co-pilot, 28-year-old Lt. Adam Bryant, is from Crewe, Va.

The missing crew members from the two-person Marine helicopter are 35-year-old Maj. Samuel Leigh of Kennebec, Maine, and 26-year-old 1st Lt. Thomas Claiborne, of Douglas, Colo.

(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)