WINDSOR, Ontario (AP) -- U.S. and Canadian crews on Sunday searched for 10 people believed to have been killed when a small regional airline plane crashed into Lake Erie shortly after taking off from a Canadian island.
The wreckage of the single-engine plane was spotted Saturday evening, with the plane nose-down in the water and surrounded by ice, said Paul Mulrooney, president of Georgian Express, the airline that owned the Cessna 208 Caravan.
``Unfortunately, this has changed from a rescue mission to a recovery mission,'' Constable Brian Knowles of the Ontario Provincial Police in Kingsville said Sunday.
Eight men returning from a hunting trip, the pilot and a female friend of the pilot were aboard when the plane went down in snowy weather around 5 p.m. Saturday about one mile west of Pelee Island, 20 miles north of Sandusky, Ohio, authorities said.
U.S. Coast Guard officials said the pilot of the plane, bound from Pelee to Windsor, about 35 miles to the northwest, made a frantic radio call for help shortly after taking off.
The U.S. Coast Guard cutter Neah Bay stayed at the scene of the crash during the night, but the snow and low clouds forced helicopters to leave. The water temperature Sunday morning was about 34 degrees, and wind and snow flurries were forecast, with waves of 2 to 4 feet.
``The weather became a very big factor in our efforts,'' said Capt. Dave Elit of the Canadian search and rescue coordination center at Canadian Forces Base Trenton.
Ontario Provincial Police divers headed to the crash site Sunday, and a Canadian Coast Guard ship with salvage equipment also was being sent out, Knowles said.
Authorities initially said that at least nine men were on the plane, but Knowles said Sunday that a woman, a friend of the pilot, also was on board. Their identities were not immediately released, but police said the men were hunting on the island.
The pilot was from Toronto and the passengers were all from southwestern Ontario - four from Chatham, two from Windsor and two from Kingsville, the provincial police said.
Mulrooney did not identify the pilot but said he was experienced with the Cessna Caravan and had worked for Georgian Express for more than a year. ``The weather was poor down there, but from what we know, it is flyable type of weather,'' he said.
Pelee Island and Ohio's Lake Erie islands are popular summertime destinations for people from Ontario and Ohio but are lightly populated in the off season.
Mulrooney said his company, based in Mississauga, Ontario, has up to three flights daily between the island and Windsor in the winter, when ice prevents ferries from running.
