Missing plane found in Lake Erie off Dunkirk, NY; Texas Equusearch involved in Search
New York State police divers located two of three victims and the wreckage of a missing Piper aircraft that crashed into Lake Erie near Dunkirk, NY in late August. The plane was located in about 80 feet of water.
After nearly six weeks of searching the lake bottom, police, U.S. Coast Guard officials and a Texas-based nonprofit search organization pinpointed the site where the plane came to rest. The divers found the wreckage at about 1 p.m., police said.
“We found a significant portion of the fuselage. It had the tail number on it,” said Sgt. Alvaro Garcia, a State Police diver from Albany. “We came across a victim on the first dive, and we knew what we had.”
The Texas-based nonprofit search organization was Texas Equusearch who had volunteered and deployed to Dunkirk, NY to help locate the missing plane and recover the three young adults after previous searchers had come up empty.
Texas Equusearch has deployed to Dunkirk, NY, to assist the New York State Police and Niagara Regional Police Department in the search and recovery of 3 young adults, victims of a tragic August 26th plane crash in Lake Erie.
The victims are three Pennsylvanians, 22-year-old pilot James Regal; Regal’s best friend, 24-year-old Kevin Jesteadt; and Jesteadt’s girlfriend, 23-year-old Lindsay Myers. The three were returning from a sight seeing trip over Niagara Falls where
The search has been primarily conducted by New York state police, who have contributed a dive team and a vessel equipped equipped with side-scanning sonar; although several other entities were involved, including a Texas-based non-profit group that assists in finding missing persons both on land and water.
Texas Equusearch of Dickinson, Texas, supplied a dive team and people with technical expertise in the interpretation of side-scan sonar and analyzing the flight radar data supplied by the Federal Aviation Administration.
Related stories:
Wreckage, body found in missing plane case
Missing plane found in lake off Dunkirk
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Pingback by Scared Monkeys » Blog Archive » Missing plane found in Lake Erie off Dunkirk, NY; Texas Equusearch involved in Search & Recovery | October 7, 2005
There was a short period where we lost several aircraft here in Erie, PA. The airport is three mins. from home and that has not stalled my determination to get flight classes at the flying school and become a pilot.
Thank God and all the people involved in this search for finding these people.
May their families find comfort now.
Erie, Pa
Comment by Johanna | October 7, 2005
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