At news time tonight, a Tropic Air Cessna caravan is still in about 15 feet of water off the coast of the Toledo District near Cattle Landing, 2½ miles from Punta Gorda where it made a crash landing on Saturday morning.
A press release from Tropic Air says that just before midday on Saturday, pilot David Eck left the PG Airstrip in the caravan without passengers heading to Placencia. 5 minutes into the flight and 1500 feet into the air he experienced engine failure and the aircraft plunged. Eck made a successful landing in the sea near the shore.
Civil aviation officials have launched an investigation, since the plane was built in November of 2000 and shipped new to Belize. The pilot had about 5 years experience, and had logged about 4 thousand hours of flight time. More urgent than that though are arrangements to retrieve the plane.