4 Survive Plane Crash Landing
A pilot and a crewman have been killed in a small plane crash on this northern Lake Michigan island, while four others survived, the Charlevoix County sheriff said Friday.
The twin engine turboprop had a woman, her three children, a pilot and crewman on board. It was bound from Chicago to Beaver Island when it disappeared Thursday night.
The passengers survived, while the pilot and co-pilot died, a local sheriff said Friday.
The U.S. Coast Guard airlifted the mother and children to an airport in Charlevoix, Mich., on the mainland about 30 miles away, said Coast Guard spokesman Paul Roszkowski in Cleveland.
The family members were to remain in the hospital for observation overnight Friday, Lasater said.
A pilot flying over the island discovered the twin engine turboprop on the bluff Friday morning, the sheriff said.
"They did find the aircraft wreckage 1 mile west of the airport on a bluff," he said.
The plane last had routine contact with controllers around 6:20 p.m. Thursday.
Then, the plane was 10 to 15 miles from Beaver Island, where the family has a house, the Coast Guard said.
Poor visibility, fog, freezing rain and snow had hindered launching search helicopters and a plane earlier Friday. The helicopters were able to search about 560 square miles before calling off the search Thursday night.
Coast Guard surface ships searched for the plane through the night.
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