Crash landing on frozen lake: family outing ends in plane crash
Anchorage (Alaska/USA) - When his son (38), who wanted to take a few laps with his daughters in the family's restored airplane , did not return, father John Morris launched a major search operation . And it was actually successful! The three of them had crashed over a frozen lake!
According to an article from"Alaska's News Source", the three occupants of the "Piper PA-12 Super Cruiser" were reported missing last Sunday evening at around 10.30 p.m. (local time). Immediately, countless police officers , firefighters and private aircraft owners poured out to search for the light aircraft.
The search was indeed successful. A pilot, who became aware of the search through a Facebook call from a friend of the crash pilot , reported making eye contact with the passengers around twelve hours after the disappearance.
As it turned out, the bird went down over a fortunately frozen lake and only half collapsed into the ice due to its low weight. In an interview with the newspaper, Dale Eicher, who had reported the sighting to the police, said: "I was really shocked. I no longer expected that we would find her alive ... it doesn't always turn out so well."
At around 10.30 a.m. last Monday, the three occupants of the plane were rescued by members of the Alaska Army National Guard.
Pilot should not have taken any passengers with him
According to the latest findings, the 38-pilot was a student pilot who was not authorized to carry passengers in his aircraft!
In an interview with the newspaper, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) revealed that it had initiated disciplinary proceedings against John Morris Junior yesterday, Wednesday.
Junior has not cooperated with the authorities since the accident, the statement continues. He did not answer the investigators' calls, nor did he report the accident within the statutory 24-hour period. Mark Ward, an investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said, "The FAA told us that he was a student pilot, had not applied for a pilot's license, and apparently had a history of violating the no-passenger rule."
Due to the lack of cooperation, it is still unclear whether the crash landing was an emergency or a "planned" landing.