Search to continue through 2nd night for plane that crashed

The U.S. Coast Guard said Saturday evening it would continue searching through the night for a downed plane in the ocean about 23 miles off Palm Beach County.

Two people and two dogs were on board the Piper Saratoga when it took off from Lantana at 1 p.m. Friday into a severe thunderstorm, according to officials and flight records.

The passengers were Ken Simmons and wife Alice of Lantana, relatives have confirmed in media reports. Ken Simmons, a long-time Palm Beach County veterinarian, would often pilot his own plane to pick up pet patients from the Bahamas, reports said.

WPEC-Channel 12 spoke with his relatives Friday evening, but they did not want to go on record because they are waiting for answers.

“He’s just a great guy,” neighbor Candace Neff told WPEC-Ch. 12. She lives across the street from Simmons and his wife, Alice, along North Atlantic Drive.

“He was a vet. He helped us a lot with when our animals were hurt or injured,” she said. “He just takes them in and makes it better.”

The fixed-wing single engine plane crashed into the water shortly after takeoff from the Palm Beach County Park Airport, said Kathleen Bergen, spokeswoman for the Federal Flight Administration.

The plane had a tail number of N3016L and was registered to Simmons Pet Properties LLC in Lantana, online records show. State records show Simmons and his wife as managers of the corporation.

“We’re still looking for the people and the aircraft,” Seamen Erik VillaRodriguez said Friday.

The seven-seater was en route to Marsh Harbour in the Bahamas, which is about a 73-minute flight, records show.

A radar map on the flight-tracking site flightaware.com shows severe thunderstorm activity and the plane flying directly into the heart of it before it falls off the radar.

The plane hit heavy turbulence about 10 minutes into the journey with steep climbs, dropping descents and seemingly spinning in every direction, the Piper’s online log shows.

The Palm Beach County Sheriff ’s Office has joined in the search and rescue effort.

The Coast Guard launched a helicopter crew from its Miami station. From the Lake Worth inlet, the Coast Guard sent out a cutter and a 45-foot response boat, agency officials said.

The FAA will investigate and the National Transportation Safety Board will determine the probable cause of the accident, Bergen said.

Material from WPEC-Ch. 12, a news partner of the South Florida Sun Sentinel, was used in this report.