Oct. 8, 2007 — The U.S. Coast Guard has confirmed that one person was killed Sunday evening in a private plane crash off the northwest coast of St. Croix. Search and rescue found seat cushions, the tail of the aircraft and fiberglass floating in the water belonging to a plane registered to St. Thomas resident Levette Ruan.
Human remains were also found, according to Lt. Juan Miguel Hernandez of Coast Guard Sector San Juan, contacted by the Source at 12:50 a.m. Monday. The body parts were turned over to V.I. Mariner Police, the Blue Lightning Strike Force, which will conduct forensic tests on the remains, Hernandez said.
“The search conditions were not optimal,” he said, mentioning the stormy conditions and little moonlight.
At 5 a.m. Monday Blue Lightning will resume searching the area, and at 9 a.m. a 110-foot Coast Guard Cutter will join the search, Hernandez said.
“We are not sure it was the owner (who was killed), but one person was found,” Hernandez said.
V.I. Police have contacted the next of kin, Hernandez said.
The U.S. Coast Guard received word at 6:52 p.m. Sunday that a private plane went down off the northwest coast of St. Croix, and began search-and-rescue operations at the scene. At that time there were conflicting reports that between one and four persons were aboard the aircraft.
The plane, a Twin Engine Beach Baron that left the Cyril E. King Airport on St. Thomas without filing a flight plan, radioed the tower at the Henry E. Rohlsen Airport on St. Croix. The tower heard, "I have a prob–," which the Coast Guard assumed to mean “problem.”
The Coast Guard advised all mariners in the area through emergency channel 16 to be aware of debris that may be floating in the area, Hernandez said.
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