wesleyj said:Like is said in an earlier post, anyone that flies a single engine airplane over lake michigan is a fool.
Hi Billwsuffa said:4 miles offshore. They were most likely avoiding Chicago airspace, as opposed to another 100 miles of detour going to the west, since it's hard to go through. Wonder if things might have been different if we still had Meigs?
He wasn't crossing the lake. The lake is not between Oshkosh and Gary. He was on the lakeshore VFR route, which you fly as far from shore as you feel comfortable, usually within a mile of land. It's even marked on the terminal charts.wesleyj said:Like is said in an earlier post, anyone that flies a single engine airplane over lake michigan is a fool.
flykelley said:Hi Bill
There is a VFR corridor along the lakeshore when you are at Gary Ind you need to at 4300 or less and then down to 2300 ft for the most part but you can fly right along the shore so if you lose a engine you won't be swimming to far. I just flew that route on my way to and from Oshkosh. There is a good chance they both would still be alive today if they had followed that VFR corrodior and you don't have to talk to ATC.
Regards Mike
Well that makes alot more sense then. Im not sure that I would have flowen that route then given the TFR and the weather. Its always sad to lose a fellow pilot.smigaldi said:Problem was there was one of the stadium TFR near the shore. Therefore they had to fly out a couple of miles over water to avoid the security nonesense.
N2212R said:Of course if they were talking to ATC - they could have flown within the 3nm of the stadium. If ATC would answer that is.
wsuffa said:4 miles offshore. They were most likely avoiding Chicago airspace, as opposed to another 100 miles of detour going to the west, since it's hard to go through. Wonder if things might have been different if we still had Meigs?
Pilot found in lake ID'd
By Jeremy Gorner and Jason Meisner
Tribune staff reporters
Published August 3, 2006, 8:06 AM CDT
Authorities this morning identified the pilot who apparently drowned after his single-engine plane crash-landed into Lake Michigan last weekend, four miles off the city's shoreline on the South Side.
The body of John Gonas, 57, was pulled from the lake around 5 p.m. Wednesday about a mile east of Jackson Harbor. The plane was also found at the lake bottom about 50 feet from Gonas' body, authorities said.
Gonas, of Akron, Ohio, was pronounced dead at 10:20 p.m. Wednesday at the Cook County medical examiner's office, a spokesman said. An autopsy was to be conducted this morning.
Chicago Police Marine Unit divers located the wreckage with the aid of the O'Hare International Airport tower's record of the plane's flight path, police spokeswoman Monique Bond said. The divers used a scanning sonar device to pinpoint the wreckage.
"(The divers) got final readings, plotted the courses and conducted multiple searches with the sonar over the projected course," Bond said.
Bond said the plane was not removed from the water on Wednesday because of thunderstorms that were passing through the area. The plane will likely be removed sometime today.
The plane, an American Legend Cub, crash-landed into the lake Sunday afternoon en route to Gary Chicago International Airport from an air show in Oshkosh, Wis.
The plane's only passenger, a 49-year-old Texas man, and the pilot struggled together to swim ashore, officials have said. But only the passenger was rescued, scooped up by a Coast Guard Auxiliary boat about 5:10 p.m. that day, a half-hour after the plane went down.
From there, U.S. Coast Guard volunteers helped transport the passenger to shore. He was later treated and released from the University of Chicago Hospitals.
Federal Aviation Administration records show Gonas has a valid private pilot's license issued out of the agency's Great Lakes Regional Office.
Also Wednesday, police who were transporting Gonas' body back to shore found a woman's body floating near the Adler Planetarium, east of downtown Chicago.
The woman was pulled from the water and taken to the medical examiner's office, where she was pronounced dead at 9:05 p.m. Wednesday. An autopsy was scheduled for today.
A medical examiner's office spokesman said the woman's body was badly decomposed, and she remained unidentified this morning.
Copyright © 2006, Chicago Tribune
tonycondon said:weird they just found some random lady floating while looking for another guy.
smigaldi said:From there, U.S. Coast Guard volunteers helped transport the passenger to shore. Copyright © 2006, Chicago Tribune
Coast Guard Auxiliary is all volunteer. A lot of the Lake Michigan area is under the jurisdiction of the CG Aux. The Auxilliar also directly performs all of the missions of the Coast Guard missions except law enforcement and military. That means they SAR, environmental protection, radio watch standing, etc.FiftyFour said:Interesting I always thought the Coast Guard were paid professionals not Volunteers,
wesleyj said:Like is said in an earlier post, anyone that flies a single engine airplane over lake michigan is a fool.
wesleyj said:Like is said in an earlier post, anyone that flies a single engine airplane over lake michigan is a fool.