3-Week-Old Puzzle Solved : Body in Surf Believed 3rd Plane Crash Victim

A decomposed body discovered Thursday morning in the surf off Newport Beach was identified as that of Kevin Lee Eisiminger, missing since a small plane crashed into the ocean three weeks ago, authorities said.

The discovery of the 30-year-old Huntington Beach resident’s body explained the puzzling circumstances of the crash for investigators, who found in the wreckage of the two-seater plane the bodies of a man and woman who did not know how to fly.

Investigators said they believed Eisiminger might have been on board because he had access to the plane through his flying club and because he had been seen leaving a Westminster bar to go flying with the couple just hours before the single-engine Cessna plunged into the sea about 2 a.m. Feb. 26. Eisiminger had flown the plane before and had checked it out on the day before the crash, according to the flying club’s president, but Eisiminger did not reserve the plane on the 26th.

His car was found near the plane’s tie-down spot at John Wayne Airport, and he had not shown up for work following the crash, investigators said.

Eisiminger, a licensed student pilot and employee of McDonnell Douglas Corp., was identified Thursday afternoon by members of the Orange County coroner’s office, who said they matched Eisiminger’s dental records with the teeth of the body.

Clothes still on the body--only pants and a pair of boots--matched those that Eisiminger was reportedly wearing when he was last seen with Richard Michael Brownell and his girlfriend, Sandra L. O’Grady.

Authorities theorized that Eisiminger, at the time of the crash, was in the seat beside Brownell giving him directions on how to fly the plane.

The bodies of Brownell, a 27-year-old self-employed landscaper from Anaheim, and O’Grady, a 25-year-old waitress from Huntington Beach, were found in the crumpled cockpit in 47 feet of water several hours after the crash, authorities said. Brownell’s body was strapped to the pilot’s seat, authorities said, while O’Grady’s body was found floating free in the fuselage.

A woman walking on the beach near her oceanfront home about 6:30 a.m. discovered the body of Eisiminger floating in the surf off M Street--about 1 1/2 miles from the crash site--and called authorities, Newport Beach police spokesman Tom Little said. He said officers pulled the body from the waves and notified the coroner’s office.

“The currents have been from a westerly direction lately, which would have moved a body to the point where this one was found without too much trouble,” said Ted Sullivan, the deputy coroner investigating the crash.

The National Transportation and Safety Board officer investigating the crash could not be reached for comment.