Commuter plane crashes off Cape Cod; two presumed dead

YARMOUTH, Mass. -- A commuter plane with just two pilots aboard crashed Tuesday off Cape Cod after the crew reported an emergency and tried to return to the airport, authorities said. The pilots were presumed dead.

Recovery efforts were suspended for the night at about 7:30 p.m. without any bodies being recovered, said Mark Foley, a spokesman for the Yarmouth Fire Department.

Yarmouth police chief Peter Carnes would not say if the plane's flight data recorder had been recovered.

The pilots were identified by their company, Colgan Air, as Capt. Scott Knabe, 39, of Cincinnati, and First Officer Steven Dean, 38, of Euless, Texas.

"We at Colgan are devastated and saddened by the loss of Scott and Steve, two well respected and well-liked crew members," Colgan president Mike Colgan said in a statement posted on the company's Web site Tuesday night.

The Federal Aviation Administration said the crew declared an emergency shortly after takeoff and was returning to land when the crash occurred about 250 yards from shore in 14 to 23 feet of water. The plane was a Beechcraft 1900D, a 19-seater, the FAA said.

The pilots were on a routine flight to return the plane from Hyannis to the airport in Albany, N.Y., Colgan Air spokeswoman Mary Finnigan said. Colgan Air, based in Manassas, Va., is a carrier for US Airways Express that serves Cape Cod.

Television images from the crash site showed a small boat in the water near submerged sections of the plane, and a Coast Guard helicopter hovering overhead. Divers were seen near the wreck, and a section of what appeared to be the plane's tail could be seen just below the water.

Eyewitness Peter Joselow said it was obvious that something was wrong with the aircraft.

"It looked like it was veering very quickly to the left to come back to the airport, but it kept getting lower and lower and lower," said the Ossining, N.Y., resident who summers in Yarmouth. "It went behind the tree line and the next thing we saw was a huge plume of water twice as high as the trees."

"It was horrific to watch what was going on. I thought, 'Oh my God, I just saw someone die," Joselow said.

A couple boating in the area told police the plane appeared headed straight for them before it veered away at the last second, state Trooper John Kotfila said.

Joel Finley was in a plane scheduled to take off directly after the Beechcraft, and said he saw the plane's tail flutter shortly after takeoff. He said he heard the pilot say in radio transmissions with the control tower that he had lost "trim." The trim on the plane's tail helps it stay level, he said.

"He banked left and we lost sight of him. We were listening to the whole thing on the radio. We heard the tower say he fell off the radar screen," Finley said.

The FAA said it lost radio contact at 3:38 p.m. EDT.

There was no immediate information on the cause of the crash. National Transportation Safety Board investigators were on their way to the scene, an agency spokesman said.

Colgan Air provides service to 31 cities and 11 states on the East Coast and has hubs in Boston, New York, Pittsburgh and Washington.

According to FAA data, there have been three fatal crashes involving Beech 1900D aircraft since 1998, including the one that killed 21 people in Charlotte, N.C., in January. That aircraft was also operating under the US Airways Express name.

The twin-engine turboprop plane crashed shortly after takeoff from the Charlotte-Douglas International Airport. Investigators have focused on the maintenance procedures of an outside contractor.

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On the Net:

Colgan Air: http://www.colganair.com/