In August 0f 2007, a SOCATA TB-20 Trinidad airplane crashed into Lake Huron while in route to Bad Axe from Mackinac Island.
The plane was flown by a 52-year-old woman from Washington DC and had one passenger, a 56-year-old man also from Washington, DC. A large-scale search for the plane wreckage or survivors was conducted, but the plane was never found.
On October 8, 2007, human remains were found in the Straits of Mackinac, east of the Mackinac Bridge. Those remains were recovered and later identified as the missing pilot. The search for the passenger and the plane wreckage continued and eventually was called off without finding the wreckage.
In October 2023, Great Lakes Search & Recovery, a private company, resumed the search efforts at the request of family members. In August of 2024, members of the search team discovered plane wreckage near Bois Blanc Island. This discovery was reported to MSP.
Members of the MSP Marine Services Team were able to collect evidence from the crash site that led investigators to believe that this plane wreck was that of the missing plane from 2007. As state police divers searched the wreckage, a set of skeletal remains was found at the crash site.
The remains were provided to the Center for Forensic Anthropology at Northern Michigan University for identification.Through dental records they were positively identified as being the skeletal remains of the 56-year-old passenger.
The Michigan State Police credits the amazing work done by Great Lakes Search and Recovery to help bring closure to the victims’ families.
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