CALIFORNIA BRIEFING / LONG BEACH

Searchers recovered a portion of landing gear and other debris offshore Monday near the site of a reported midair collision of two small planes about five miles south of Long Beach Harbor, according to authorities.

The collision was reported at 5:45 p.m. by the pilot of a third plane who saw the planes crash into the sea, according to Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor.

“One of the planes was a Cessna 172 from Long Beach Airport,” Gregor said. “We do not know where the other craft departed from.”

U.S. Coast Guard, Long Beach Fire Department and Los Angeles Police Department vessels were dispatched to the scene to search for possible survivors.

Jackawa Jackson, a spokesman for the Long Beach Fire Department, said that divers would be sent in to search the waters “when it is safe to do so.”

Fire Department searchers discovered the debris roughly an hour after the collision.

“The debris is scattered across a large area of water from 93 to 115 feet deep,” Jackson said.

“We do not know how many victims were on board,” he said.

-- Louis Sahagun