They are two married couples who had left last night from Indiana.
Four people, two women and two men, who traveled to Florida (USA) from the state of Indiana, died in a possible plane crash in waters near the Florida coast of the Gulf of Mexico, an incident whose circumstances are under investigation the authorities reported.
The four people, two married couples, according to what the Venice Police Department (VPD) believes, took off aboard a small plane on Wednesday night from the airport of the aforementioned coastal city, in Sarasota County.
Shortly after takeoff, after 9:30 p.m. local time (1:30 GMT on Thursday), the device plunged into the sea for reasons that are still unknown, Andy Leisenring, captain of the Venice Police, reported at a press conference during this day. .
The deceased were identified as William Jeffrey Lumpkin, 64, who was piloting the ship; Patricia Lumpkin, 68; Ricky Joe Beaver, 60, and Elizabeth Anne Beaver, 57, all from the state of Indiana.
According to the local police department, the first search, which began on Wednesday night, found the bodies of the two men, as well as a set of “debris.”
This Thursday, “divers located the main part of the plane, a single-engine Piper PA-32R, as well as the bodies of two women believed to be the spouses of the men,” police said.
“The remains were at a depth of approximately 23 feet (7 meters),” VPD added in a statement on their social media.
“VPD has been in contact with the families of the victims and our hearts certainly go out to them,” he says.
According to Leisenring, several people at the Venice pier saw the plane crash and called the emergency services through the 911 number.
Video footage from the airport and pier will be reviewed and turned over to the National Transportation Safety Board, which is conducting an investigation, the official added.
Last December, a couple and their daughter died in a similar accident off the Venice fishing pier, but VPD does not see a connection between the two incidents at this time.
On that occasion, the “remains” of the rented Piper Cherokee single-engine plane were found by air commandos on December 4 more than a mile (1.6 km) west of the coast, the city’s mayor’s office said on Twitter. from Venice, on the west coast of Florida.
EFE