MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The body of a pilot who crashed his floatplane into Minnesota’s Lake Mille Lacs and drowned has been recovered, the county sheriff said Saturday.
The Mille Lacs County sheriff said in a Facebook video that the pilot’s body was recovered from the lake just before 10 p.m. Friday. The plane was also recovered. The crash occurred before 2 p.m. Friday, the sheriff said.
The sheriff’s office identified the pilot as 47-year-old Ryan Comer, of Blaine, KARE-TV reported. Little information is available about what caused the crash, the Star Tribune reported.
The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating and asking for video footage that might have captured the crash, either from boaters or property owners on the southwest shore of the lake.
The floatplane was one of two that took off about 1 p.m. Friday from the Anoka County-Blaine Airport, the Star Tribune reported, and it planned to make a brief water landing on the lake before going on to Aitkin County.
One of the planes landed successfully, but the other, an Icon A5 aircraft, crashed into the lake in 26 feet (8 meters) of water.