After hours of searching, a dive team found the single-engine plane that crashed into Lake Maitland on Wednesday morning, recovering the bodies of the pilot and a passenger, police said.
Maitland police Lt. Louis Grindle told reporters the bodies of the two men were found soon after Orange County Sheriff’s Office divers found the plane. No one else was believed to have been on board, he said.
The names of the two people killed in the crash have not been released.
In a statement, the Federal Aviation Administration said the plane, a Cessna 182, crashed into the 450-acre lake near Winter Park about 11 a.m. The plane had departed Orlando Executive Airport and was heading to Massey Ranch Airpark, an airport in Edgewater, the FAA said.
Archived tower communications from Orlando Executive recorded an emergency call from the pilot of a Cessna 182 registered to South Carolina-based Golden Corner Flying Club.
“Executive tower, emergency,” the pilot told the tower. “I’m not getting gas in the right tank.”
The tower’s responses to the pilot went unanswered.
Grindle said police responded after receiving a call Wednesday morning reporting a downed plane in the lake. Rescuers from Maitland, Winter Park and Orange County Fire Rescue helped in the search, as did a Seminole County Sheriff’s Office helicopter.
The Cessna 182 is a single-engine light airplane that typically carries up to four people.
The FAA said it would investigate the crash and the National Transportation Safety Board would determine the cause.
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