Personal thoughts and Key West Citizen article...
[font=Times New Roman, Arial]Godspeed to the pilot and passengers.
You know, I'm not sure why, but over time here and there when my friends or family ask me about aircraft crashes (since I'm a pilot, I assume), I have made it clear to them that if one day it happens to me, take what comfort you can from knowing I passed doing the thing I loved to do more than anything else.
I've seen too many people die after suffering from the ravages of diseases like cancer (including my Dad at the way too young age of 60 from prostate cancer - GET YOUR PSA CHECKED NOW - EVEN IF YOU'RE ONLY 35 - to establish a baseline), that when my number comes up hopefully I will go happily and without hurting anyone else.
Fly safe.
From the Key West Citizen at
www.keysnews.com
Plane wreckage found, two bodies recovered[/font]
[font=Arial, Times New Roman]BY SCOTT FUSARO [/font]
[font=Arial, Times New Roman]Citizen Staff[/font]
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The wreckage of a small plane that crashed shortly after takeoff from Key West International Airport Saturday night was discovered Tuesday in 28 feet of water off Boca Chica Key with one body still inside. [/font]
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The body of a second missing occupant was recovered Tuesday in Cow Key Channel, the Monroe County Sheriff's Office reported, two days after the bodies of the other two people aboard the single-engine Cessna 172 and pieces of the wreckage were recovered. [/font]
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A commercial fisherman using a depth finder found the plane when his device registered a large bump that he did not recognize on the bottom of the ocean, according to Sheriff's spokeswoman Deputy Becky Herrin. [/font]
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Sheriff's divers recovered the body from the plane Tuesday afternoon, and turned the investigation of the crash over to the National Transportation Safety Board. The plane wreckage remains on the bottom of the ocean. [/font]
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"The NTSB is not in the recovery business, so we already told [the plane owner's insurance company] to recover it, and the NTSB plans on being present when it comes out of the water. It will be secured, and then we will start our investigation," said Tim Monville, senior air safety investigator in the agency's Miami office. [/font]
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Raising the submerged wreckage could occur as soon as today, he said, and the investigation will examine factors such as the aircraft itself, its engine and various systems, the pilot's skills and experience, and weather conditions to determine the cause of the crash. [/font]
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While the cause of the crash remains unknown, experienced pilots familiar with Key West say the vault of darkness that quickly envelopes air and ocean at night can cause spatial disorientation. [/font]
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The plane took off shortly after 9 p.m. Saturday night with the pilot, identified as 21-year-old Krystal Koch of Edgewater, navigating by sight to Marathon. Koch was a junior at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach. According to the Federal Aviation Administration, she was licensed to fly passengers for hire in single-engine planes and she was certified to navigate by reading a plane's instrument panel which is required for flying in inclement weather. [/font]
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A body believed to be Koch's was discovered Tuesday morning near Cow Key Channel, in the same area where a man's body was recovered Sunday. A second man's body washed up Sunday near Smathers Beach and a limb was pulled from the water near the White Street Pier Monday, Herrin reported. [/font]
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The Coast Guard identified one of the bodies as Egon Sussmann, 31, whom the Sheriff's Office reported to be from Deland, although a relative listed his home as Cape Town, South Africa. The other two aboard the plane have been identified as Piers Littleford, 31, of Deland and Bruno Asmann, 37 of Port Orange. [/font]
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Confusion enveloped the plane's whereabouts almost from the moment it took off Saturday night. Although the private aircraft flying by visual flight rules was not required to maintain contact with air traffic controllers, Koch reportedly twice contacted the air tower at Naval Air Station Key West, whose controllers manage Key West airspace at night, requesting a transponder code so the plane could be tracked. [/font]
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The plane never appeared on the controller's computer screen, however, setting off a flurry of phone calls to the Key West, Marathon and Miami airports. Firefighters at the Key West airport and the owner of the aviation services provider Paradise Air at the Marathon airport checked for the plane on the ramps at the airfields, but it was not in either location. [/font]
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About the same time, the Sheriff's Office received a call of a possible plane crash off the Lower Keys, and relayed the information to the Coast Guard which dispatched a crew to investigate. Not finding any indications of a crash and unable to verify that it had occurred, the Coast Guard crew ended its search. [/font]
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It was not until the following morning when a boater discovered a section of wing floating near the Boca Chica Bridge that a full search was launched. [/font]
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The Associated Press contributed to this report [/font]
