A plane carrying six people who had reportedly attended the Cavaliers and Celtics game "vanished from radar" Thursday. The plane disappeared shortly after takeoff, the Washington Postreported. Crews on Friday were continuing to search Lake Erie for the plane believed to have contained three adults and three children.
"Crews from the U.S. Coast Guard and Royal Canadian Air Force are searching Lake Erie, Friday, for six people aboard a Cessna Citation 525, after it disappeared from radar shortly after takeoff, Thursday evening, at Burke Lakefront Airport," the Coast Guard said in a press release. "The cause of the disappearance is unknown."
The plane is reportedly registered to Superior Beverage Group CEO John T. Fleming, the Columbus Dispatch reported Friday. His father, John W. Fleming, told the Dispatch his son was flying the Cessna Citation 525 when it vanished from radar over Lake Erie Thursday night. "They think they may have crashed into Lake Erie," he said.
"We're very hopeful," Michael Mullen, chief of response for the Ninth Coast Guard District, told the Chronicle at a press conference. "We will be very hopeful up until the point that we have to turn the search off and we switch over to assisting with recovery."
