Oct. 8, 2007 — The U.S. Coast Guard has suspended a search for the pilot of the private plane that crashed off the northwest coast of St. Croix Sunday evening.
The search was suspended at approximately 2 p.m. Monday, according to Ricardo D. Castrodad, Sector San Juan public affairs specialist for the Coast Guard.
St. Thomas resident Levette Ruan, 62, was flying his Beach Baron twin-engine aircraft from St. Thomas to St. Croix to pick up passengers when the aircraft crashed into the water as it approached St. Croix, according to a news release Castrodad issued at 8:53 a.m. Monday. Controllers at the Sector San Juan Joint Rescue Sub Center received a call at 6:52 p.m. Sunday from the St. Croix air traffic control tower reporting the downed aircraft.
Human remains were found near the crash site, but a positive identification cannot be made until forensic tests are completed, Castrodad said. However, he did say, “Every indication we had was that there was only one person on the plane.”
The stormy weather suspended other inter-island flights Sunday.
Seaborne Airlines suspended flights Sunday because of bad weather conditions, according to Marcy Heistand, director of sales.
“The weather was just terrible … the safest thing to do was to cancel flights,” Hernandez said Monday. No Seaborne flights left St. Thomas or St. Croix after 2:15 p.m., according to Hernandez.
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