Poor Weather ‘Could Have Caused Missing Plane To Ditch Into Sea’
3rd December 2015
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Poor weather may have caused a missing plane to ‘ditch into the Irish Sea’, the coastguard has said.
A major search is still underway for the light aircraft, which disappeared off the coast of Blackpool shortly after 9am today.
A search of the coastline close to Blackpool Airport was called off after emergency services found no sign of a downed plane
It was on its way to Blackpool Airport from the Isle of Man when air traffic controllers lost contact with the pilot, the only person on board.
It then disappeared from radar.
Duty controller at the UK Coastguard service, Matthew Mace, said: ‘There are reports of low visibility in the area so there is a strong likelihood that this aircraft may have ditched into the sea after contact was lost and it disappeared from the radar.
‘We currently have a helicopter and several coastguard teams out searching for this aircraft.’
Coastguards preparing to go out in search of a missing plane and it's pilot. Poor weather may have caused a missing plane to 'ditch into the Irish Sea', the coastguard has said. A major search is still underway for the light aircraft, which disappeared off the coast of Blackpool shortly after 9am today. It was on its way to Blackpool Airport from the Isle of Man when air traffic controllers lost contact with the pilot, the only person on board. It then disappeared from radar. 3 December 2015.
The emergency services called off an earlier search of sand dunes at Starr Gate after fire crews and police officers found no sign of the downed aircraft.
Seven coastguard and RNLI crews are searching three miles off-shore. A search and rescue helicopter from Caernarfon in Wales is also helping.
Airport director Ann Reynolds confirmed that the single engine prop aircraft was based at Ronaldsway but was not Manx-registered.
Source: IOM Today
