Plane vanishes off Florida radar. Hours later, two found dead in the wreckage
A plane headed to the Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport disappeared from radar at 7 p.m. on March 8.
Hours later, the plane was found crashed about one mile north of the northbound runway in a wooded area, the Bay County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release.
The couple in the plane, Donald and Diane Slattery, were found dead.
They were traveling from Michigan in the Cessna plane owned by Donald Slattery and had stopped in McMinnville, Tennessee, before heading to Panama City.
The plane crashed “under unknown circumstances,” a Federal Aviation Administration spokesperson told McClatchy News.
The Bay County Sheriff’s Office, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, airport police, the Panama City Police Department and the Panama City Beach Police Department teamed up and “were able to locate the crashed plane with the help of drones,” police said.
According to authorities, the National Transportation Safety Board and the FAA are taking over the investigation, and the bodies were turned over to the medical examiner’s office.
The NTSB told McClatchy News that an NTSB investigator is traveling to the scene.
“Once on scene, the investigator will begin the process of documenting the scene and examining the aircraft,” an NTSB spokesperson said. “Part of the investigation will be to request radar data, weather information, air traffic control communication, maintenance records and the pilot’s medical records. NTSB investigators will look at the human, machine and environment as the outline of the investigation.”
According to flight activity history, the couple left Jack Barstow Airport in Midland, Michigan, earlier that day. They had reached the Warren County Memorial Airport in McMinnville, Tennessee around noon, local time, before heading back out again.
The NTSB said investigations involving fatalities can take between 12 and 24 months to complete.
This story was originally published March 9, 2022 at 1:23 PM with the headline "Plane vanishes off Florida radar. Hours later, two found dead in the wreckage."
