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With a mustache, the cool factor would be too much
Location: left side of my couch, East Texas
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I'm glad you guys are all right.
The people that crashed into Lake Erie weren't so lucky.
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationwo...news-headlines
Quote:
Lake Erie Crash Efforts Shift to Recovery
By The Associated Press
January 19, 2004, 2:28 PM EST
Kingsville, Ontario -- -- Divers arrived Monday to begin looking for bodies at the spot where a small regional airline plane crashed into the icy water of Lake Erie with 10 people on board.
"Unfortunately, this has changed from a rescue mission to a recovery mission," provincial police Constable Brian Knowler said Sunday.
The single-engine Cessna 208 Caravan crashed in snowy weather Saturday afternoon. By Sunday it was submerged in 24 feet of water about a mile west of Canada's Pelee Island, the Ontario Provincial Police said.
The Georgian Express plane had just taken off from the island bound for Windsor, about 35 miles to the northwest, when the pilot made a frantic call for help. It carried eight hunters from Ontario, the pilot and a friend of the pilot.
The cause of the crash had not been determined.
Ontario Provincial Police said divers arrived at the crash site Monday morning aboard the Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker Samuel Risley for what they expected to be a difficult recovery.
Shifting ice on the lake complicated their work, police said. Temperatures only in the teens and 20s were forecast Monday with snow showers and waves building from 3 to 5 feet. The water temperature was about 34 degrees.
"It's very cold, very difficult dive conditions in the best of times -- even more so because of the wind and ice," police Constable Dennis Masse said Monday.
Many of Pelee Island's 180 or so year-round residents recognized the eight hunters, who traveled several times a year to the popular pheasant-hunting destination, said Pelee Township Mayor Bill Krestel.
"I think everybody has met some of those people at one time or another," Krestel said Sunday.
Authorities identified the pilot as Wayne Price, 32, of Richmond Hill. The other victims were Fred Freitas, 38, of Kingsville; Jim Allen, 51, of Mitchell's Bay; Ted Reeve, 53, of Chatham; Tom Reeve,49, of Chatham; Robert Brisco, 46, of Chatham; Ronald Spencler, 53, of Windsor; Walter Sadowski, 48, of Windsor; Larry Janik, 48, of Kingsville; and Jamie Levine, 28, of Los Angeles.
Sadowski's wife, Theresa, said she felt numb as she waited for the recovery. "We're just waiting. I wish it could be over sooner, but I understand it takes time," she said.
Walter Sadowski and the family dog had joined his friends after finishing his midnight shift Thursday at Chrysler Canada for what had become an annual winter jaunt to Pelee Island, his wife said.
Krestel said the crash was a severe blow to the town, where air travel is the only way in and out during the winter. A ferry runs between the island and mainland in the warmer months.
Don Enns, regional senior investigator for the Transportation Safety Board of Canada, said he did not have reliable information yet about the weather at the time of the crash and could not say whether it played a role.
Some island residents said it struck them as odd the plane took off in such poor conditions. "It was crummy weather," Shawnda Bedel, 29, said in a telephone interview. "It snowed most of the day."
However, Paul Mulrooney, president of Georgian Express, said the Cessna Caravan is "very capable of flying in this weather." He said Price had worked for Georgian Express for more than a year.
Copyright © 2004, The Associated Press
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