Plane carrying 5 crashes in Lake Mich.; 1 rescued

Re: C206 down in Lake MI

Looks like they rescued one and 2 more reportedly were able to don life-jackets. We'll see how many actually survive, right now it looks like just one.
 
I'm a member of the local medical charity flight group, Wings of Mercy, and they have let us know that this was NOT one of our group's aircraft.

Sad news indeed. :(
 
I wonder if they decided to cut over the lake because of the wx? going south would have been quite a bit longer than normal with that mess there.
 
Latest from local news station:

Pilot rescued, 4 missing in plane crash
Search continues in Lake Michigan

Updated: Friday, 23 Jul 2010, 4:42 PM EDT
Published : Friday, 23 Jul 2010, 12:01 PM EDT
By Ken Kolker

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) - The pilot of a small Cessna that crashed in Lake Michigan is hospitalized in good condition, but an active search continues for the other four people onboard the flight.

Jerry Freed was pulled from the water just before noon by a nearby fisherman about five miles north-northwest of Ludington.

At 10:17 a.m., the Coast Guard received calls from a fishing vessel that witnessed the crash and from the Ludington Airport Tower. It's not clear if the vessel that called in the accident is the same vessel that rescued Freed.

The sheriff departments of Manistee, Ludington, Mason and Oceana all responded, and the US Coast Guard launched a search for the plane using a helicopter and two boats.

The search is still going on, and will continue until at least sunset, officials said at an afternoon press conference at the Ludington Coast Guard station. The press conference was conducted by Mason County undersheriff Tom Turner, Michigan State Police Lt. Dave Roessler and Chief Jim Hendricks of the Ludington Coast Guard Station.

The search for the other four people - three men and a woman - is centered about 3.5 miles off Big Point Sable in an area where crews have found debris and medical gear. There are between 50-60 searchers from different agencies all looking in the area.

The Cessna 206 is believed to have sunk into the water, about 250 feet deep at that point. The Michigan State Police are bringing in deep-water sonar to aid in the search.

The temperature in Lake Michigan is in the 70s, but rescue crews are not sure how long the four can survive in the water.

The pilot, Freed, was wearing a life jacket and had been in the water about 45 minutes when he was found. He was conscious and alert, though groggy, when he was picked up by the fisherman. He's in Memorial Medical Center of West Michigan.

Freed was able to tell authorities the single-engine plane was about halfway across Lake Michigan and turned around after experiencing engine problems and headwinds.

Authorities with the Mason County dispatch center told 24 Hour News 8 they received a call from the Minneapolis Air Control that a Cessna 206 lost an engine and crashed into Lake Michigan.

A map of the plane's flight path from flightaware.com suggests problems developed about one-third of the way into the flight when the westbound plane doubled back over Lake Michigan and then had a steep decline in altitude near Ludington.

The plane is privately owned by Freed's construction company in Alma, and left the Gratiot Community Airport for the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota at 9 a.m. Friday.

Carol Freed, who owned the plane along with her husband, Jerry, said her husband was on the plane with friend and pilot Earl Davidson. She said they regularly flew people to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester on a volunteer basis.

"We've all been to Mayo Clinic for various reasons," Carol Freed, of Alma, told The Associated Press. "A lot of people cannot get a flight there due to time constraints and cost."

This isn't the first time a medical flight has crashed in Lake Michigan. A Survival Flight plane carrying donor organs for a
double lung transplant operation crashed in June 2007 into the lake near Milwaukee on its way to the University of Michigan Health System hospital in Ann Arbor. All six people on board the Cessna 550 Citation were killed.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Click to expand...
 
That's a pretty skinny spot in Lake Michigan there. The flight aware track seems to be slightly messed up though. I remember calculating for an archer or something that if I climbed to like 12,000ft I could glide to land from any point over water right in that area.
 
Re: C206 down in Lake MI

Ayork62493 said:
I'm just not comfortable flying over open water with just one engine...
Click to expand...

I'm with you. Even in a twin, unless it's turbine, I still get a little nervous. RIP to all, as it's VERY sad to see a med flight go down.
 
Wow this is so sad, I posed a question just like this to fellow instructors a few weeks back. Would you make a trip like this in a single engine at say 10,000? If so in what sized aircraft would you feel safe?

Archer?
Malibu?
PC-12?

RIP to those that were lost.
 
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