Plane Crash
Jonathan Leber
Audio: 911 call for help from Lake MichiganPosted on 04/26/2005 7:11:36 PM PDT by Jean S
A 20-year-old ministry student's rented single-engine plane ran out of gas and went down in Lake Michigan about five miles offshore, prompting him to make a frantic 911 call from his cell phone pleading for help.
| Plane Crash |
|
Jonathan Leber |
| 911 call |
| Audio: 911 call for help from Lake Michigan |
Rescue crews in boats, helicopters and planes spent much of Tuesday searching the choppy waters for Jonathan Leber before calling off the search late in the afternoon.
Leber told a dispatcher he had no flotation device and was planning to swim to shore.
"I need any help real fast," Leber of Springfield, Va., said in the call shortly before midnight Monday.
"My plane's going down real fast," he added as the dispatcher asked him questions.
He said, "I'm in the water" before the water could be heard in the background and the call cut off.
The Coast Guard estimated Leber could survive in the 44-degree water for about four hours, Lt.j.g. Boris Montasky said. Investigators don't believe the plane floated for long.
Leber, who was preparing for the ministry at Maranatha Baptist Bible College in Watertown, was flying west across the lake when he radioed he was low on fuel, Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Elizabeth Isham Cory said.
He ditched his plane in the lake a short time later.
Leber was flying under visual flight rules and was not required to file a flight plan, Cory said.
"He had gone for the weekend to New York. He had stopped in Michigan Sunday and was coming back from Michigan," said Darryl Sturgill, assistant to the college's president.
Leber had rented the plane from Wisconsin Aviation Four Lakes Inc. of Madison.
"It's tragic," said Jeff Baum, the company's president. "He was a young man with a promising life."
The National Transportation Safety Board would investigate the crash. The search included Coast Guard boats and helicopters, a C-130 plane from the Canadian Coast Guard and boats from the Milwaukee Police and Fire Departments.
Coast Guard Lt. Rolando Hernandez said the search would not resume unless investigators had new information that would lead them to think Leber could be alive.
Complete coverage of this story will appear online later tonight and in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in the morning.
Prayers on the way. May the good Lord provide comfort and strength.
Prayers on the way. May the good Lord provide comfort and strength.
Prayers on the way. May the good Lord provide comfort and strength.
Prayers on the way. May the good Lord provide comfort and strength.
Prayers on the way. May the good Lord provide comfort and strength.
This is very sad.
I listened on the radio as the Coast Guard, Fire dept. and even local police departments tried to locate him last night. They really didn't know where he was and were asking police departments north and south of Milwaukee along the lake to look for any sign of him. A pilot had reported seeing a flare, but wasn't able to pinpoint where it had come from.
As late as 1:30 this afternoon aircraft and boats were criss-crossing the area looking for any sign of him.
The local radio reports have been more detailed. He called from the top of his plane and said it was sinking fast, then his phone cut off.
Negative. He radioed that he had no flotation device.
prayer bump
It is sad, but there's a reason why my club has a rule not to fly beyond glide distance to shore.
While I pray that he makes it, the number one reason these small planes crash is that they run out of gas. Make sure your plane's tank is full at take-off.
Starrgaizr wrote:
It is sad, but there's a reason why my club has a rule not to fly beyond glide distance to shore.
--> Glide distance or not, he could have suffered a similar fate on land, there's more things to hit on land unless he could glide to an airport.
What a sad death. it could have been avoided.
Yah... he deserved to die for a mistake. If you wanna go, there's probably still time to get to the funeral to explain that to his loved ones in person if you like. I'm sure it's just what they need to hear.
With the high price of gas I'm sure it will be Bush's fault.
I have taken private pilot lessons as a hobby. Usually those who do not file a flight plan, skip more then one step on their preflight checklist, causing problems down the road. I am not saying this is what he did, but you see it often. I hope he is safe, and maybe just disoriented from what has happened. My prayers are with him and his family.
This young man is a friend of my daughter's. They had a couple of classes together this semester. She was talking about his sense of humor and what a brilliant young man he is. I have been praying all day that somehow someone picked him up and was taking care of him, but that would surely have been reported by now. I guess they told the kids at MBBC that the search has been called off. It's a pretty small campus where everyone pretty much knows each other or at least of each other.
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