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Bodies of pilot, passenger found in Lake Pleasant
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A month-long search for the bodies of two men piloting a Scottsdale plane that crashed into Lake Pleasant ended Tuesday morning thanks to underwater cameras.
The Maricopa County Sheriff Office’s lake patrol diving unit located wreckage of the aircraft and the bodies of its pilot Clay Whitney, 45, and his passenger Tim Marshall, 31, both of Phoenix. The two were still fastened in their seats in 126-feet of water, according to Sheriff Deputy Charles Scudella.
The wreckage and the bodies were located with the help of underwater cameras divers borrowed from Central Arizona Project. The bodies were found about ¼-mile from where the single-engine Diamond Star 40 went down on May 12, Scudella said.
Witnesses saw the plane flying as low as 10 feet above the water about 8 p.m. Whitney was talking on a cell phone to a friend in a boat on the lake, according to information from Federal Aviation Administration.
The pilot had asked the friend to shine a flashlight to signal the boat’s location moments before the plane crashed about a mile northwest of the 10-Lane Boat Ramp.
FAA rules require airplanes to be at least 500 feet above any body of water if there are boats present. Whitney had an Airline Transport Pilot license, according to Gary Lewin, president of Scottsdale-based Southwest Flight Center, where the plane was rented from.
The bodies were to be recovered Tuesday, but it was not known whether Lake Pleasant would be open during the recovery.
“There are special needs to bring up the wreckage,” Scudella said.
Search efforts were previously suspended because of the crowded conditions at the lake made it too dangerous, officials said.
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