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Piper PA24
The following is a United Press International newspaper wire service article describing the loss of this aircraft: October 10, 1979 Plane Missing Over Big Lake; Search Is Futile SOUTH HAVEN (UPI) – Authorities have come up empty handed in efforts to locate a single engine plane believed to have crashed in Lake Michigan off shore from South Haven, Coast Guard officials say. The active search for the craft, which vanished from air traffic controllers’ radar screens Wednesday while heading from Palmyra, Wis., to Detroit, likely will be halted officials said. Search aircraft and boats covered a 1,500-square mile area of Lake Michigan Wednesday but found no trace of the missing plane, a Piper PA24 with one person aboard, Coast guard spokesmen said. The pilot, Stewart Greger of Palmyra, was heading to Detroit on a business trip, said Petty Officer Bob Cripps at the Coast Guard Rescue Coordination Center in Cleveland. The plane was about 25 miles west of South Haven when air traffic controllers in Chicago lost contact with it, Cripps said. Coast Guard rescue crews from Chicago, Traverse City, South Haven and Holland were dispatched to the are but found no wreckage, Cripps said. The search continued through the day. Greger, who was on an instrument flight plan, had indicated he might be in trouble a short time before he lost contact with Chicago, Cripps said.” The NTSB accident report pointed to icing conditions, caused by sleet and freezing rain, as being responsible for the aircrafts loss. By Ross Richardson MSRA is partially funded through a grant from
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