THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, January 12, 1996 TAG: 9601120487
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B8 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY KAREN JOLLY DAVIS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CAPE CHARLES LENGTH: Short : 45 lines
Coast Guard sonar scanned the floor of the Chesapeake Bay. State police divers searched for wreckage. Officers with three agencies combed the Savage Neck beach for debris.
But by Thursday afternoon, no further remains had been found of a pilot and plane that disappeared Saturday.
``We're not turning up anything,'' said Tammy Van Dame with the state police.
On Wednesday, an Eastern Shore resident found aircraft debris that had washed ashore at Savage Neck just north of Cape Charles. Then, while combing the beach, game warden Mike Cason found a foot in a boot.
Officials don't know if the remains are those of Preston Henry, an Indiana lawyer whose single-engine plane disappeared from radar near Cape Charles Saturday night. He was flying from Gaithersburg, Md., to Fayetteville, N.C.
Van Dame said it might be possible for the chief medical examiner in Norfolk to identify the victim.
On Thursday, a 41-foot boat from the Cape Charles Coast Guard station cruised the coastline towing a side-scan sonar device behind it, underwater.
The sonar looked at a 75- to 100-yard swath of the Bay floor with each pass.
A state police dive team searched for wreckage, and a state police helicopter flew the coastline near Savage Neck. More officers combed the beach. But their efforts were unrewarded.
How long will the search continue?
``Until the state troopers say when,'' said Petty Officer Scotty Robinson, with the Cape Charles Coast Guard. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
VICKI CRONIS/The Virginian-Pilot
An Eastern Shore resident found aircraft debris that had washed
ashore at Savage Neck just north of Cape Charles Wednesday. Then a
game warden found a foot in a boot. Officials don't know if the
remains are those of a missing Indiana lawyer.
by CNB