SEAL BEACH, Calif. (KTLA) – Family, friends and colleagues gathered Sunday in Seal Beach to honor the life of Connor Lees, a firefighter with the Los Angeles Fire Department who died earlier this month during a recreational free dive.  

The Dec. 5 incident occurred when Lees, 29, and three other divers in their 20’s went for a free dive, which entails a person holding their breath for as long as they can while diving without scuba gear, in the waters off Long Beach, the Los Angeles Times reported.  

Long Beach Fire spokesperson Brian Fisk told The Times one of the men was presumably piloting the small watercraft while the others were free diving, adding that only two of the three returned from the dive.  

The three men called for emergency help just before 10 a.m., launching a multi-agency search with divers from the U.S. Coast Guard, LAFD, L.A. County Fire, LBPD and the L.A. Port Police.

More than 19 hours after the search began, officials made the difficult decision to transition from a search and rescue mission to a recovery mission.  

“The decision to transition operations to a recovery mission is not taken lightly,” LBFD said in a post to Instagram. “As we make this transition, our thoughts and prayers continue for the family of the missing diver and for our brothers and sisters at the Los Angeles City Fire Department.”  

Officials told The Times that investigators did not suspect foul play, and that Lees was believed to be lost at sea.  

Lees, who grew up in Seal Beach and was a six-year veteran of LAFD, was remembered Sunday night as something of an institution in the community, one whose untimely and tragic death has affected so many that knew him.  

Friends said the 29-year-old loved the ocean and the beach and that the place he grew up was the perfect spot to honor lasting memory.  

CARSON, Calif. (KTLA) – A small aircraft crash landed onto a golf course Sunday in Carson.  

Details are extremely limited and it’s unclear how the crash occurred, but officials with the Los Angeles County Fire Department said crews responded to the Victoria Golf Course, located at 340 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. at around 3:45 p.m., on reports of the downed plane.  

In footage of the crash posted to the Citizen App the damaged aircraft, which appears to be upside down, can be seen beneath a low-lying limb of a nearby tree just off what a practice putting green.  

The area where the plane came to a stop had been cordoned off with yellow tape by deputies with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, who were also at the crash site.  

Not far away, debris from the crash, possibly a part that came off the aircraft, can be seen on the ground.  

The golf course did not appear closed for the investigation as golfers very near to the crash site continued playing even as first responders worked nearby.  

It’s unclear how many people were in the aircraft when it went down, but at least two people were taken to the hospital with minor injuries, L.A. County Fire confirmed to KTLA.  

This story will be updated when additional details are made available.

Any Los Angeles-area driver can relate — the freeway accidents that cause traffic jams always happen at the worst possible times.

That appeared to be the case on Sunday morning. As KTLA’s Gene Kang was preparing to talk about the holiday travel rush from an overpass over the 110 Freeway near downtown L.A., he witnessed an interesting traffic situation.

While KTLA cameras didn’t catch the collision occur, the aftermath was clear. The driver of a sedan appeared to have crashed into a concrete overpass, causing significant damage to the front end car.

It wasn’t immediately clear if the driver or any other occupants were injured in the crash.

However, the cleanup forced officials to close two lanes on the 110, making just one lane open.

The traffic from that situation caused a large backup, as drivers are familiar with in L.A. While Kang was getting ready to report on some holiday travel tips, he witnessed multiple drivers performing illegal mauveurs, including driving right over a center median on the freeway.

That situation was clearly dangerous, as the drivers were steering right onto other lanes of the freeway, where others behind the wheel of their vehicles were going full speed.

Luckily, no other crashes occurred. The situation likely brought back some memories for Kang, who is no stranger to weird incidents while reporting live on KTLA.

In 2022, as he was talking about a hit-and-run on “one of the most dangerous roads in L.A.,” a car wreck happened in the background of one of his live shots. And in a weird twist-of-fate, it was also a hit-and-run. Of course.