First responders were notified about the horrific crash after receiving a lost radar alert.
Horrified residents of the quiet coastal neighborhood also made several 911 calls after hearing the plane’s engine revving and sputtering before a massive splash in the sea near Asilomar.
Footage obtained by KSBW from Saturday night captured flares shooting into the air from the near the plane wreck to aid search crews.
Officials estimate the plane crashed about 200 to 300 meters from the shore.
A spokesperson for the US Coast Guard Southwest District told the Daily Mail several life boats and a helicopter were deployed within minutes of the crash.
The first victim was recovered on Sunday morning, KION reported from the scene. The other two bodies were found in the afternoon, the Coast Guard told KSBW.
Debris from the crash has washed up on rocks and on the shore.
These remnants include luggage, seat cushions and other pieces of the aircraft, a CAL FIRE spokesperson told the Daily Mail.
Footage from the scene showed an oxygen tank and chunks of metal that ended up along the coast.
When he spoke with the Daily Mail on Sunday morning, the CAL FIRE representative said officials hoped the daylight makes it easier to locate the rest of the aircraft and the remaining ‘victims or survivors.’
The identities of those onboard have not been publicly released.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) will collect the debris to determine what caused the accident.
The Monterey County Sheriff’s Office and Pacific Grove Police are involved in the multi-agency recovery mission as well.
Pacific Grove Police told the Daily Mail they could not share a comment because the investigation is ongoing.
Sunset Drive between Jewell Avenue and Pico Avenue, near where the plane went down, is closed as investigators probe the area.
The Daily Mail has reached out to the involved agencies for more information about the incident.
As the search persists, witnesses have shared their chilling recounts of the moment the plane went down.
‘I heard the plane flying low over my house last night, and then heard a loud pop,’ one woman wrote on Facebook.
‘Woke me up, sounded like a plane doing air show stunts over my roof then heard it hit,’ another chimed in.
The ill-fated flight went down in the same area where songwriter John Denver fatally crashed his homemade plane in October, 1997.
The 53-year-old folk musician and plane enthusiast died when his experimental Rutan Long-EZ malfunctioned – causing it to fall into the Monterey Bay.
