Local Witness Said It 'Looked Like A Big Lure In The Water'

The pilot of an experimental airplane escaped uninjured when his aircraft went down in the water Sunday afternoon in Charlotte Harbor near Ft. Meyers, FL.

Witnesses told television station WBBH that one moment the plane was flying by, the next it was in the water. "It's a really colorful plane," said fisherman Jim Harding, who saw the plane go down from his boat. "It looked like a big lure in the water."

The pilot got out of the plane relatively unscathed, but then came the challenge of towing the half-submerged aircraft back to shore. That job fell to Towboat US, a company that provides such services to stranded mariners.

The plane, which according to FAA records was an Aventura II, had come down in shallow water about two miles off shore, according to the station. Capt. Nick Sanguedolce said that he had to pump water out of the plane to float it and then put it under tow. Fortunately, he said, the water was shallow enough that he could stand on the bottom to complete the work.

The registered owner of the airplane, Donna Claus of Peoria, IL, told the station she had recently sold the airplane to someone in Florida. That person was not named.

(Aventura II pictured in file photo. Not accident airplane)

FMI: www.ntsb.gov