Oct. 7, 2007 — 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 is conducting search-and-rescue operations at the scene.
There are “conflicting reports” that between one and four persons were aboard the aircraft, according to OS1 Kim Hawkins at Coast Guard Sector San Juan.
The plane, a Twin Engine Beach Baron, left the Cyril E. King Airport on St. Thomas without filing a flight plan, Hawkins said in a telephone interview Sunday evening. A 25-foot Coast Guard boat arrived on the scene and a helicopter has been dispatched, Hawkins said.
The tower at the Henry E. Rohlsen Airport on St. Croix received a message from the distressed plane before it went down, according to Hawkins. The tower heard, "I have a prob–," which the Coast Guard assumed to mean “problem.”
Some debris has been found, but Hawkins said it has not been determined whether the debris is from the downed plane.
The aircraft is registered to Levette Ruan of Estate Nadir, St. Thomas, according to Coast Guard officials. Registration papers for the aircraft do not list a telephone number, Hawkins said. Contact information would aid the rescue operation if officials could find out how many people were on the plane and if they had life rafts aboard, she said.
Customarily the Source would withhold the name of the plane's owner pending further information about the crash and the fate of anyone on board. Because identifying information may help with search-and-rescue efforts, however, we have decided to make an exception for this story.
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