OCEAN CITY – With the second major coastal storm in a week passed the mid-Atlantic region, the search for a second victim and more wreckage from last week’s plane crash off the coast of the resort has resumed.
Late last Wednesday night or early last Thursday morning, a Cessna 172S Skyhawk airplane occupied by at least two individuals went down off the coast of Ocean City near the Ocean City Municipal Airport. The Maryland State Police (MSP), with assistance from the U.S. Coast Guard and Maryland Natural Resource Police (NRP) and other allied agencies began an extensive search.
The U.S. Coast Guard identified the plane’s two occupants as Benica Richards-Robinson and Marcson Ngwa, although the Maryland State Police have not identified any occupants on the ill-fated flight. Late last Thursday afternoon, significant pieces of the wreckage along with one of the victims were recovered in an area about five miles off the resort coast.
According to the Maryland State Police, the recovered victim was a male wearing the same clothing as described on the pilot who left Martin State Airport last Wednesday. The MSP has not yet identified the recovered victim or named any of the occupants on the plane. However, in a report on WJZ-TV on Baltimore on Wednesday, Alvin Robinson made an impassioned plea for continued search and rescue efforts for his, 27-year-old wife Benica, who reportedly took off from Martin State Airport last Wednesday with a friend, Ngwa, in the Cessna 172S.
Late last week, a monster storm arrived in the mid-Atlantic causing the search and recovery efforts to be suspended. The search and recovery efforts did not resume because of the lingering conditions associated with last week’s storm.
On Tuesday, a second storm arrived off the mid-Atlantic coast, bringing heavy rains, high winds and rough seas. However, with conditions expected to improve, the MSP, along with the NRP and the Coast Guard is expected to resume the search on Thursday.
“The weather hasn’t been cooperating and we will continue to keep a close eye on the conditions and monitor them carefully, but the plan is to resume the search efforts on Thursday,” said Sergeant DaVaughn Parker of the MSP Office of Media Communications on Wednesday. “The plan is to pick up right where they left off. They left markers around the search area and the hope is those markers are still in place after the back-to-back storms.”
Sometime last Wednesday evening, a Cessna 172S Skyhawk airplane left Martin State Airport in Baltimore County for Ocean City. According to a Coast Guard release, the plane was seen practicing touch-and-go landings at the Ocean City Municipal Airport on Wednesday evening. Shortly after 10 a.m. on Thursday, federal officials notified the MSP Special Operations Division that the aircraft had not returned to Martin State Airport as expected.
A multi-agency search effort in and around the Ocean City Municipal Airport was then initiated.
Around 11:30 a.m. last Thursday, an MSP Aviation Command Trooper 4 and Civil Air Patrol crew located what was described as an oil slick in the ocean about 1.5 miles from the Ocean City Municipal Airport. According to sources, an airplane tire was found floating in the oil slick.
According to the MSP, rescue personnel continued to focus their search on the area late last Thursday afternoon. Throughout the afternoon on Thursday, sources have confirmed debris consistent with an airplane had been recovered in a vast area off the coast, including some as far as five miles out. In addition, a NRP dive team was searching for possible victims in the area where the oil slick was discovered.
Shortly before 5 p.m. last Thursday, MSP, the NRP and the Coast Guard conducted side-scanning operations in an underwater debris field. The debris field was located approximately five miles from the initial oil slick.
Rescue personnel determined the aircraft was in a severely deteriorated condition and a body was recovered from among pieces of the plane. The recovered body was a male wearing the same clothing as described on the pilot who left Martin State Airport on Wednesday. Authorities did not identify the body recovered. The deceased has been transported to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Baltimore for an autopsy.
Search efforts concluded just before 6 p.m. last Thursday as storm conditions began to arrive along the mid-Atlantic coast. The MSP Underwater Recovery Unit with assistance from the U.S. Coast Guard, the NRP, the Worcester County Sheriff’s Office, MSP troopers and members of the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center will resume the search and rescue operation and the investigation continues.
