Coast Guard Calls Off Search For Downed Cape Cod Plane

ORLEANS, MA — The Coast Guard suspended its active search for a small plane that crashed into the ocean off the coast of Cape Cod, pending further information.

The National Transportation Safety Board announced Tuesday afternoon that it has opened an investigation into the incident, though no further information has been given.

At 11:30 a.m. Tuesday, the Coast Guard’s 1st District Northeast said in a news release that it called off the search at 9:30 a.m., after crews spent a total of 55 hours searching more than 2,076 square miles, with no sign of the missing pilot or aircraft.

The missing pilot was identified as Roger Mills, 67. The Coast Guard did not release Mill's address or home state.

At least six crews, as well as the harbormasters from Chatham, Harwich, and Orleans, spent Sunday night and most of Monday searching the area off Nauset Beach for the single-engine white and beige Piper Cherokee plane. Mills departed from Reading, Pa. Sunday afternoon to meet a friend in Chatham Sunday night.

At 10:34 p.m. Sunday, about two and a half hours after the pilot didn’t arrive, the friend called the police to alert them of a possibly drowned plane. The FAA reviewed the radar data of the plane, which was last detected just before 7 p.m. about 3.5 miles off Hyannis, dropping 4000 feet per minute, according to a CBS4 report. Normally, small planes descend between 500 and 1000 feet per minute, Chatham airport manager Tim Howard told the Cape Cod Times.

Authorities say it took hours to estimate a location because of the delay in the friend’s call and the lack of a flight plan. “That’s a long time,” Chatham Harbormaster Stuart Smith told CBS4. “Hours later in the open ocean, it’s just, it’s a lifetime.”

As numerous crews searched choppy seas, they saw no smell of fuel or evidence of a plane, the Cape Cod Times reported. Crews searched different sections of the area using infrared technology, radar, and lights, but still found nothing.

Anyone with new information regarding the case is asked to call the Coast Guard’s Sector Southeastern New England at 508-457-3211.