Pilot Flying Too Slowly, Friend Says : Fish-Spotting Plane Appeared to Stall, Then Plunged in Sea

The missing pilot of a light plane that crashed into the ocean off Dana Point probably lost control of the craft when he spotted a swordfish and slowed to track its movement for a fishing boat, a close friend said Monday.

Joseph A. Shirley had been flying for about an hour Sunday morning when his single-engine plane appeared to stall in midair, then plunged several hundred feet into the Pacific about 10 miles southwest of Dana Point, said Dick McDowell, a longtime friend of the 42-year-old pilot and building contractor from Del Mar.

Based on reports from eyewitnesses, McDowell speculated that Shirley was so intent on keeping track of a fish he had located that he purposely slowed the plane’s engine to a near idle. But when the craft began to dive, Shirley was unable to regain enough speed to avoid crashing at about 11:30 a.m.

‘Experienced Spotter’

“Joe is an experienced fish spotter, but it has been a slow summer,” said McDowell, owner of an aviation charter business at an El Cajon airport east of San Diego where Shirley kept his plane. “My guess is, he got so excited about finally spotting a swordfish, he did everything he could not to lose that fish.”

Added McDowell, who also spots fish for commercial boats: “Joe was a good, very good pilot. This is sad.”

Authorities called off the search for Shirley’s Cessna 172 late Sunday because rescuers found only minor debris from the plane’s cabin--paper cups, a can of wax, a tennis shoe and an aerosol can.

Search Lasted 10 Hours

A pair of U.S. Coast Guard cutters as well as two U.S. Navy vessels spent nearly 10 hours Sunday covering a 77-square-mile area in near-perfect weather, Coast Guard Petty Officer Dennis Hall said. Visibility at the time of the crash and most of Sunday afternoon was 15 to 20 miles with light winds and only two-foot swells.

“Everything they found fit into one small box,” Hall said. “The plane apparently sank like a rock.”

Ocean depths reach 2,400 feet near the crash site, making it extremely difficult to retrieve the plane, Hall said.

Nonetheless, investigators with the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board are looking into the incident. Because no engine nor other parts of the plane were found, the agency’s review will rely on eyewitness accounts of the crash, as well as interviews with Shirley’s family and friends and an examination of the plane’s maintenance records. Shirley’s medical history will also be explored to determine if he had heart disease or other ailments that may have contributed to the crash.

“For all we know, he could have had a heart attack. We just don’t know,” said Gary Mucho, the investigator in charge of the NTSB’s Los Angeles office. “This is a tough one because we have no wreckage to examine. We may never know what happened.”

Flying Too Low and Slow

The pilot’s brother also speculated that Shirley may have been flying too low and too slow, causing the engine to stall. When the plane hit the water, the pilot may have been knocked unconscious, said John Shirley.

“He just was not as astute as he could have been,” said John Shirley, who owns a Del Mar hot-air balloon company. “Aviation is very unforgiving. It’s not like a walk in the park.”

John Shirley does not believe that his brother’s body will ever be recovered. “I just wish he wasn’t dead,” he said. “It was too sudden, too permanent.”

Shirley, a bachelor, was described by McDowell as an “experienced pilot” with more than 2,000 flying hours. In the late 1970s, McDowell sold Shirley his first plane. About three months ago, Shirley bought the Cessna he was flying Sunday. It is not considered a high-performance plane and is capable of top speeds of little more than 115 miles per hour. But the aircraft is well-suited to the slow, often tedious flying required to spot swordfish for commercial fishing boats. The swordfish like to sun themselves in the warmer waters near the surface.

Though Shirley’s new plane was built in 1967, McDowell said it was in “excellent condition.”

Enough Fuel for 4 Hours

A contractor specializing in custom homes, Shirley kept his plane at Gillespie Field, a general aviation airport in El Cajon where more than 700 planes are parked. McDowell said Shirley took off about 10:30 a.m. Sunday with enough fuel to stay airborne nearly four hours.

As he did often in the past, Shirley agreed to spend several hours helping to spot swordfish for a friend who skippers a commercial fishing boat out of San Diego, McDowell said. The boat, the Horizon, was operating over the weekend from Dana Point Harbor. McDowell said Shirley was not working for pay.

McDowell said: “He just loves to fly, and he liked to go up and spot fish because of the challenge. He knew the risks, but he was an adventurer.”

Joseph Shirley is survived by his brother, a sister and his mother, who lives in Newport Beach.

Staff writer Anthony Millican in San Diego contributed to this report.