Bodies Of Two People Found In The Aircraft

Authorities have recovered a portion of the wreckage of a T-6 which went down off the Florida coast Friday fatally injuring both people of board the aircraft.

File Photo

The NTSB said recovery crews have brought in everything from the airplane except its wings and tail. All of the wreckage was taken to the Coast Guard station at Destin, FL about 0400 Sunday morning.

The Destin Log reports that Tim McDonald of Niceville, FL, was flying the T-6 when it went down Friday shortly after noon. His brother in law Tim Turner was also on board at the time of the accident. The plane impacted the water about three-quarters of a mile off the coast of Destin. Witnesses said the yellow T-6 failed to recover from a loop and nosedived straight into the water. There were reportedly two subsequent underwater explosions, but divers found the plane largely intact but inverted on the bottom. It took until Sunday for the weather to clear and seas to calm to the point where the airplane and victims could be recovered.

The bodies of McDonald and Turner have been handed over to the Okaloosa/Walton medical examiners office. McDonald reportedly held a commercial pilot certificate and more than 1,700 hours in his logbook.

The accident is the second involving a T-6 in the region this year. An AT-6 Texan went down in the Gulf of Mexico March 6th off the coast of South Walton county, FL. That accident fatally injured Dr. Herman Zeigler Jr. and his wife Peggy from Birmingham, AL.

FMI: www.ntsb.gov