Coast Guard Finds Missing Plane With 2 Men Dead
MACKINAC ISLAND (WWJ) - U.S. Coast Guard crews have found the wreckage of a single-engine plane that went missing Saturday evening.
Coast Guard chief petty officer Kyle Niemi says the two men aboard the plane - Joe Pann and Tom Phillips - identified Saturday as missing - are dead. Phillips is believed to be an Amazon.com executive.
Pann and Phillips are reportedly from the northern Michigan area.
"The plane had taken off from St. Ignace, Michigan about 8 p.m. on its way to Mackinac Island - it's a short trip over a small portion of Lake Huron - about 4 and a half miles and should have taken the pilot about six minutes but the Coast Guard was notified after the family had not heard from them for two hours," said Niemi.
"Our helicopter rescue crew got a signal from an emergency locator transmitor ... it was about 100 yards inland from Lake Huron and about three miles north of St. Ignace," said Niemi.
He says from his understanding, there was no type of distress call before the crash. The cause is under investigation.
