SCOTIA, NY (AP) -- A small plane plunged into the Mohawk River in eastern New York with three people aboard Sunday, and none was believed to have survived after the aircraft sank in 30 feet of water, a Federal Aviation Administration spokesman said.
The Piper Cherokee went down near Scotia around 2:30 p.m., shortly after taking off from the nearby Mohawk Valley Airport, FAA spokesman Jim Peters said. Scotia is about 20 miles northwest of Albany.
Two aboard the plane were found dead and authorities were still searching Sunday night for the third person, Peters said. The FAA did not have the identities of those on board or their destination. State police, who were leading the emergency response, had no immediate information.
Witness Skip Ryan, a pilot who was waiting to take off behind the doomed plane, said it cleared some brush at the end of the runway and then appeared to lose power in the air, plummeting nose-first into the river.
"I watched it go over the brush and go into the river," Ryan told the Daily Gazette of Schenectady.
A skydiving instructor told the Times Union of Albany he and others who were in the small airstrip's restaurant heard the crash, ran down the airstrip and jumped into the river and dove down toward the plane but were unable to get inside. Then some fishermen, who also had tried unsuccessfully to open the aircraft's door, dropped an anchor to help rescuers find it.
"There's nothing we wanted to do more than get into that plane," said the instructor, Michael McGuire.
The aircraft was registered to Kolath Airlines LLC of Bear, Del., Peters said. A woman who identified herself as Kolath's registered agent said she didn't know about the crash and had been unable to contact anyone with the company.
FAA records show the plane, a PA-28R-180 model, was manufactured in 1969. The model is part of the Piper Cherokee family of small planes, made by Vero Beach, Fla.-based Piper Aircraft Inc.
It wasn't immediately clear whether Kolath is a commercial venture or a corporate name for an owner's personal aircraft.
The telephone rang unanswered Sunday night at the airport.
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