The Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office has said that at least eight people, including three children, were killed when two aircraft collided over a scenic mountain lake in northern Idaho.
One was a float plane controlled by Brooks Seaplanes of Idaho’s Coeur d’Alene, which conducts panorama flights around the Lake Coeur d’Alene.Five people were on the aircraft, three of them children, and a pilot, the sheriff’s bureau said.
A Cessna 206, holding two people at least, was the second aircraft, according to the office of the sheriff. The crash site was spotted in about 125 feet (40 meters) of water by a sheriff’s search and rescue team, and thus the bodies of three victims were retrieved so far, the sheriff’s bureau said.
Sheriff Lt. Ryan Higgins said: “We do not expect any survivors.” “We conclude that everyone has died. Incident review will be performed by the National Transportation Safety Board investigators, the sheriff’s office added.
Around 2:30 p.m. the planes collided in the air near Powderhorn Bay. On the fourth weekend of July, the large and popular lake surrounded by holiday homes was busy with boaters. In search of survivors numerous personal boats went to the scene immediately. Marine teams from the sheriff, fire departments and the U.S. The Coast Guard replied as well.then fell into mud.
Recreational boaters retrieved the first two bodies on the water and handed off to the Coast Guard, Higgins added. The three bodies that were found were not known, Higgins said.
The pilot of the float was identified as Neil Lunt (58), from Liberty Lake, washington by the sheriff’s office. Sean K. Fredrickson, a golf instructor in Lake Oswego, Oregon was identified as a passenger.His children and step-child, a 16-year-old kid, an 11-year-old boy and a 16-year-old boy have all been dead. Their names have not been unveiled. No other person has been found on the aircraft.
In Lewiston, Idaho, the second plane was recorded and it left Felts Field in Spokane, Washington, according to Higgins. The sheriff’s office said that there were two people on that flight, but that their identities weren’t released pending notice from relatives.
Testimonials told news media that they witnessed two planes flying in the center of the sea, before plunging a couple hundred feet.
The float was a de Havilland DHC2 constructed in 1956 and owned by Brooks Seaplane according to a database of the Federal Aviation Administration and according to the report, other aircraft was a Cessna 206 G registered with Echo Rental Co., Lewiston, Idaho.
Remote operated submarine robot was sent down as the sheriff’s dive team can not perform at the bottom of the lake, Higgins stated. Two additional victims’ bodies werelocated at the bottom of the lake but have not yet been recovered, Higgins said. The other three victims continued to be searched, he said. “It is very dangerous to dive to that depth,” Higgins said.
We don’t know what happened, “Higgins said, apart from the crashing aircraft. The airspace on Sunday over the lake doesn’t look crowded as normally, he said further.
