120 pieces of debris recovered in search for plane missing over Lake Erie

CLEVELAND -- More than 120 pieces of debris have been recovered in the search for a plane carrying six people that went missing over Lake Erie Thursday, the city of Cleveland said in a tweet Monday.

According to another tweet from the city of Cleveland, the search operation will begin again Tuesday morning.

The plane and its occupants haven’t yet been found, but emergency officials have been searching for them by air, shore and water.

The aircraft was headed to Ohio State University Airport, northwest of downtown Columbus. The plane suddenly lost altitude about 2 miles out, according to a flight-tracking service.  

John T. Fleming, chief executive of a Columbus-based beverage distribution company, was piloting the aircraft. His wife, Sue, and their two teenage sons, Jack and Andrew, were also aboard.

A University of Wisconsin-Madison freshman and her father were also among the six, the school said Monday.

Megan Casey, 19, of Powell, Ohio, and her father, Brian, were returning from the NBA game in the plane piloted by their neighbor, the school and authorities said.

Megan Casey was in a sorority and was pursuing a career in nursing, the university said. The university released a statement from the Casey family calling the father and daughter “loving, caring, remarkable individuals.”

“Our family greatly appreciates the dedicated efforts of the rescue and recovery teams, and we are especially thankful for the outpouring of support thoughts and prayers from family, friends and the community,” the statement reads. 

The city said Monday that caution tape along the shoreline is a precautionary measure that doesn’t mean items from the plane have been found in the area.

“The search and recovery process can take a long time,” the city said.

The U.S. Coast Guard and crews from Cleveland city agencies, the cities of Akron and Toledo, Ohio’s Department of Natural Resources, New York State Police and Underwater Marine Contractors are involved in the search.

The Coast Guard began searching the air after being notified soon after the plane’s disappearance. High waves and blustery conditions prevented smaller Coast Guard boats from the Cleveland area from deploying Thursday night. A 140-foot Coast Guard cutter joined a search that covered 128 square miles of the lake on Friday.

Weather and water conditions didn’t allow for recovery efforts to begin Saturday, but crews searched for the plane all day Sunday and Monday.

The Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board are investigating.