Search for missing plane with 6 onboard continues

CLEVELAND — Search efforts will resume Tuesday for a missing Cessna 525 Citation plane that took off from Burke Lakefront Airport on Thursday night with six aboard.

The final two passengers were identified as Brian Casey, and his 19-year-old daughter Megan from Powell, Ohio.

The Caseys joined John Fleming, his wife, and their two sons Jack, and Andrew on board the plane for a trip to Cleveland to attend a Cleveland Cavaliers' game Thursday.

They were headed back to Columbus when their plane dropped from radar about two miles north of shore over Lake Erie.

Search efforts will resume Tuesday.

Megan Casey is a student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison studying nursing. In a statement from her family, Megan and Brian were described as "loving, caring, remarkable individuals."

“Our family greatly appreciates the dedicated efforts of the rescue and recovery teams, and we are especially thankful for the outpouring of support thoughts and prayers from family, friends and the community.”

"In the short time she was on our campus, Megan was a friend to many and was pursuing a career in nursing," said Wisconsin Dean of Students and Vice Provost for Student Life Lori Berquam. "Our thoughts are with her family and friends."

The search is in 35- to 45-foot water across a grid that stretches about 2 ½ miles east to west across the shoreline and 2 miles north of the shore.

The city said seven vessels with four dive teams were part of the search. Teams fromNew York State Police, Akron Fire, Toledo Fire, Cleveland Metroparks Rangers and the Ohio Department of Natural Resources joined the water, air and shoreline search efforts. Coast Guard boats and the Cleveland Police helicopter also were part of the search.

On Sunday, police confirmed a bag from the plane washed ashore in Bratenahl, Ohio. The bag contained the identification card and other items of John Fleming, the pilot. The city said it received multiple reports of debris washing ashore east of Burke Lakefront Airport, where the plane took off. Some of that debris has been collected but not verified as being from the missing plane.

Allan Eva, reportedly found the bag in Bratenahl. He said he fished it out of the water with a coat hanger.

"You feel like you're looking at the spirit of that person ... the character of that person just sort of pass through you," said Eva. "It was a very stunning kind of a feeling."

Fleming, a Dublin, Ohio, resident, is the CEO of Superior Beverage Group, a Columbus beverage distribution company.

The Coast Guard began searching the air after being notified soon after the plane's disappearance Thursday. High waves and blustery conditions prevented smaller Coast Guard boats from the Cleveland area from deploying Thursday night. A 140-foot Coast Guard cutter joined a search that covered 128 square miles of the lake on Friday.