MAYPORT, Fla. -- The U.S. Coast Guard has found one body and a debris field about 8 miles off the coast of Fernandina Beach, in the area they believe a twin-engine plane went down more Sunday evening.
The Federal Aviation Administration told Channel 4 that the Cessna Super Skymaster (similar to plane pictured, left) took off from St. Simons Island, Ga., Sunday for an aerial survey of right whales, and was due back late Sunday afternoon. The plane refueled at Fernandina Beach airport about 2 p.m., reported sighting three whales just off the coast shortly after taking off again. The plane was reported overdue at 6:30 p.m.
The Coast Guard located an emergency beacon from the plane about 9:20 p.m. and spotted some debris -- a backpack, some life jackets and some papers. Early Monday morning, rescuers reported finding one body.
Officials said the Cessna, owned by Environmental Services Corp. of Fernandina, had four people aboard -- two men and two women. The pilot -- described by the company president as an experience flyer in his mid-30s -- and three marine biologists under contract to the Georgia Department of Natural Resources were aboard the plane.
Names have not been released.
"Most airplane accidents happen because something's wrong with the airplane, somethings wrong with the pilot or something's wrong with the weather,"Bob Murphy, president of Environmental Aviation Services, said. "(It's a) good plane, good pilot, and we had unbelievably good weather yesterday."
The Coast Guard began rescue efforts with boats from Mayport and helicopters from Savannah, Ga. This morning a C-130 reconnaissance aircraft from Clearwater joined the search this morning.
"There's always hope," Dana Warr of the Coast Guard said early Monday. "We don't if they had any type of survival gear with them; if they had time to put that on. It's all speculation at this point."
Channel 4 has a crew at search headquarters at the Mayport Coast Guard station and another at the Fernandina Beach airport, where the plane is based. We will update this information as details become available and have live report on Eyewitness News at 5 p.m.
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HONDA INTEGRA