Rescuers Deem Crash ‘Non-Survivable’
By Kristen Jordan Shamus, Detroit Free Press
Jun. 5–Rescuers have found some human remains during their search for the six members of a University of Michigan organ transplant team who were onboard a small plane that crashed into Lake Michigan and do not believe any of them could have survived the crash, a Coast Guard official said Tuesday.
“The condition of the aircraft debris and human remains found indicate a high-speed impact,” Capt. Bruce Jones said. “We believe this to have been a non-survivable crash.”
The pilot signaled an emergency shortly before the twin-engine Cessna Citation went down after taking off from General Mitchell International Airport about 4 p.m. Monday.
Divers were pulled from the water at nightfall, but Milwaukee Fire Chief Doug Holton said at a morning news conference Tuesday that divers were preparing to return to the water.
Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Tony Molinaro said the transplant team was headed for Willow Run airport near Detroit, a 42-minute flight.
“Within five minutes of its departure from the airport the pilot declared an emergency and requested a return to Mitchell but at that time the plane was no longer on our radar screens,” Molinaro said.
The six people aboard included two crew members, he said.
A mission of hope turned tragic when a plane carrying an organ to a patient awaiting a transplant at the University of Michigan Hospital crashed into Lake Michigan on Monday afternoon.
Six members of the U-M Survival Flight Team were on board the Cessna Citation 550 when it went into Lake Michigan at 5:05 p.m. Detroit time en route to Willow Run Airport from Milwaukee’s General Mitchell International Airport.
The pilot signaled there was an emergency about 5 minutes after takeoff, saying he needed to turn the plane around and go back to Milwaukee.
Shortly after that, the Federal Aviation Administration said it lost sight of the plane on its radar.
At about the time the plane took off, light rain was falling at the airport, with winds at 12 m.p.h., gusting to 24 m.p.h. from the north.
Dr. David Ashburn, a physician-in-training in pediatric cardiothoracic surgery, was onboard, along with Dr. Martinus Spoor, a cardiac surgeon, transplant donation specialists Richard Chenault II and Ricky LaPensee and Marlin Air pilots Dennis Hoyes and Bill Serra.
They were transporting a donor organ for a patient who was awaiting a transplant at U-M.
When health system officials found out about the crash, they notified a transplant team in Michigan to stop preparing the transplant candidate. The patient was in critical condition, the university said.
“The thoughts of the entire university community are with the families of those involved this evening,” said Dr. Darrell A. Campbell, chief of staff of the U-M Hospitals & Health Centers and a transplant surgeon. “We vigilantly await the results of the Coast Guard’s search.”
Mike Conway, a spokesman for the Wayne County Airport Authority, which manages Willow Run Airport, expressed his condolences.
“It’s such a tragedy. These are people doing nothing but great work. It’s such a shame,” Conway said.
Conway said that the Marlin Air Inc. Cessna was not under the agency’s authority at the time of the crash, but “our thoughts and hearts are with the family and friends of the medical team and the flight crew, obviously.”
A person at the LaPensee family home said the family was not prepared to comment. LaPensee is a 14-year veteran of the Ypsilanti Fire Department. No one at the department would comment.
A woman at the Spoor home would not comment either.
Chenault is a girls cross-country and track coach at Father Gabriel Richard High School in Ann Arbor. The school posted this comment on its Web site: “Please join us, and the FGR community, in our prayers for the Chenault family, and those who knew and loved Mr. Chenault.”
As soon as the FAA lost contact with the plane, it alerted the U.S. Coast Guard, which began a search and rescue mission in Lake Michigan.
Debris was found in the water about 6 miles northeast of Milwaukee, but as of Monday evening, the FAA said there was no word of survivors.
The plane debris sits in about 20 feet of water that is about 57 degrees. Survivability in that water temperature is estimated at 16 hours.
As many as 32 divers from the police, fire and sheriff’s department were searching near debris and an oil slick, Milwaukee Fire Chief Doug Holton said.
FAA spokesman Tony Molinaro said the Cessna took off from General Mitchell airport in Milwaukee at 5 p.m. Detroit time and was headed for Willow Run in Ypsilanti, a 42-minute flight.
The jet, which is leased by U-M’s Survival Flight air ambulance program, was based at Willow Run.
Based in Belleville, Marlin Air Inc. provides air charter, aircraft management and air ambulance service. The company has been operating since 1987.
The Cessna is owned by Bob Page, a principal and dealer at Page Toyota in Southfield.
An FAA spokesman said the investigation will be handled by the National Transportation Safety Board.
Staff writer Naomi R. Patton and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
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