SARASOTA COUNTY, Fla. — Two people died after a private plane crashed into the Gulf of Mexico off the Florida coast Saturday night. Police said a third person on board the aircraft remains missing, and authorities continued to search for them on Monday.
During a Monday press conference, officials said there was not a mayday call given before the plane crashed. They said the three individuals on board were family and believed that they had flown to Venice, Florida, to have dinner from Saint Petersburg.
Authorities initiated a search Sunday morning following a Federal Aviation Administration inquiry to the Venice Municipal Airport about an overdue single-engine Piper Cherokee that had not returned to its origin airport in St. Petersburg, Florida.
Around the same time, recreational boaters found the body of a woman floating about 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) west of the Venice shore, city of Venice spokesperson Lorraine Anderson said in a statement.
Divers from the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office located the wreckage of the rented airplane around 2 p.m. about a third of a mile offshore, directly west of the Venice airport, Anderson said.
Rescuers found a deceased 12-year-old girl in the plane’s passenger area. A third person, a 42-year-old man from St. Petersburg who is believed to be the pilot, remains missing, Anderson said.
Officials also said recovery efforts for the aircraft are being worked out with the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). The search area encompasses a five-square-mile radius around the plane.
The county sheriff’s office, the U.S. Coast Guard, the Sarasota Police Department, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and the District 12 Medical Examiner’s Office and the National Transportation Safety Board were involved in the investigation, Anderson said.
Watch the full press conference below.
Editor's note: An earlier version of this story reported the teen as 14-years-old. The Venice Police Chief tells members of the media he misspoke and the teenager's correct age was 12.
