Cause of Lake Michigan Medical Plane Crash Remains Unclear

MILWAUKEE - Maintenance had nothing to do with the crash of a Cessna 550 Citation that nose-dived Monday into Lake Michigan, taking the lives of six members of a University of Michigan Survival Flight team, the president of Marlin Air said Wednesday.

"No one knows that happened, and we won't know until that voice recorder comes out," said Stuart Dingman, who owns the company that contracts with the University of Michigan for all of its Survival Flights and provides the pilots. "Our maintenance records are impeccable."

Dingman said that he will not speculate that problems with the trim system, which controls the stabilization of the plane, caused Monday's crash.

John Brannen, an investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board who listened to the communications between the plane and the air-traffic control tower at the Milwaukee airport, said Tuesday that the pilot used the term "runaway trim" in an emergency call moments before the jet crashed.

Both pilots - William Serra, 59, and Dennis Hoyes, 65 - were well-trained in how to handle a runaway trim emergency, Dingman said. He added that he contacted Cessna, the manufacturer of the twin-engine corporate jet, and was told that type of craft has no history of runaway trim problems.

"These airplanes are such reliable crafts, and that's why they were selected. The accident rate is so low; that's why it's hard to understand," he said.

Pia Bergqvist, a spokeswoman for Cessna in Wichita, Kan., agreed that it's too early to speculate on an exact cause of the crash.

"This is a very preliminary investigation, and we don't know yet if runaway trim is the cause," she said.

The answers Dingman and so many others are searching for may or may not be found Wednesday in the choppy waters of Lake Michigan, about a mile off the Milwaukee shore.

Long days of searching through rain, strong winds and big waves have turned up sections from the plane's left and right wing flaps, along with pieces of cockpit interior, a baggage door, seats, cushions and other small pieces of the aircraft, Brannen said.

A police spokeswoman said some medical debris, including needles, washed up just south of Milwaukee.

Equipment that can home in on the pinging sound the cockpit voice recorder would emit if it is intact is being delivered to the crash site Thursday. If it's found, it could be the key to discovering what happened in the final minutes of the flight.

"We're hopeful that once the locator for the cockpit voice recorder has arrived, it will aid in locating the bulk of the wreckage," Brannen said.

But Jerry Guyer, 60, who co-owns Pirate's Cove Diving Inc. and runs diving charters of ship wreckage along the Milwaukee shoreline, wondered whether there ever will be a resolution.

He's been helping the dive teams by using his $30,000 sonar equipment to look for the wreckage. Guyer's sonar equipment includes a large cylindrical device known as a "fish tow" that is pulled behind the boat underwater, sending images of the lake's bottom to a computer inside the cabin.

He was told to look for circular images on the sonar that could resemble the plane's fuselage, but has seen nothing like that at the bottom of the lake.

Aboard his 38-foot boat Wednesday afternoon, Guyer said he isn't optimistic that the black box will be found.

"My best guess is the complete destruction of the plane upon impact," he said. "I have nothing to base that on, except the speed. The fact that it happened in broad daylight right out here, in what I call our front yard, it's going to be in little pieces."

Guyer and co-owner Bob Schaefer, 61, have run the operation for about 35 years.

Schaefer shares Guyer's enthusiasm for assisting in the search.

"The families needs some finality," Schaefer said. "It's got to be terrible for them."

Authorities said the plane hit Lake Michigan at about 190 mph. Brannen said a review of the radar data indicates that the craft went straight into the lake, not leveling off at any time.

"From the point that the flight crew reported the emergency, there was no indication that the plane leveled off," he said.

Brannen said that although there would be "an increased emphasis" by investigators on runaway trim based on the pilot's emergency radio call, "we will take a look at as much of the wreckage that is recovered" as possible.

Milwaukee Police Lt. Richard Dollhopf, who heads up the dive team, said divers have not found the main wreckage site. He said about 12 divers searched from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesday, but the search was halted again when waves reached about 6 feet high.

"There's not been any human remains recovered from the bottom of the lake," he said. "What keeps us going is the chance of assisting the family and recovering the bodies."

For Dingman, Monday's crash was personal. He has flown transport flights for U-M.

"It is a dedicated profession. It's not the most comfortable because you get calls at all times of the night," he said.

The crash meant more to him than the loss of a plane. He said he lost six people who were not just colleagues, but friends.

"It was a bad day. Bill has been with me a while, and we were great friends," he said of Serra, one of the pilots. "I've known him longer than we worked together."

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