Plane crashes into Laguna Madre

PORT MANSFIELD — One man is dead and another missing after their plane went down in the Laguna Madre on Thursday night.

The two brothers-in-law were heading to the lagoon from the Texas Panhandle for an annual fishing trip when their private twin-engine Piper PA-30 aircraft crashed into the water near Port Mansfield about 10 p.m. Thursday, authorities said.

A crew from the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department found the body of Robert James Robinett, 48, of Sunray — a town just north of Amarillo — about 12:30 p.m. Friday, Texas Parks and Wildlife Capt. Kenneth Baker said.

However, the pilot was still missing as of late Friday. Some authorities at the scene speculated he might have been trapped within the aircraft.

Officials were waiting to release the man’s name in compliance with the family’s wishes.

Crews from the U.S. Coast Guard, Texas Department of Public Safety, the Civil Air Patrol and Texas Parks and Wildlife immediately began searching for the plane and passengers early Friday morning after the Federal Aviation Administration reported it had lost communications and radar contact with the aircraft.

Baker drove a man identified to reporters as Robinett’s brother-in-law and the pilot’s brother to the dock to view Robinett’s body.

“It was just devastating for him,” Baker said. “He was real close with his brother-in-law.”

Baker said the unidentified relative from Fort Worth was meeting the two men for the fishing trip.

“That’s my brother’s bag,” the man said as he looked through wreckage that crews recovered early Friday.

One report said the men were flying from Borger, about 45 miles northwest of Amarillo, while another said they were coming from Amarillo. They were en route to Port Mansfield, officials said.

Robinett’s hometown of Sunray is located about 40 miles northwest of Borger and 60 miles north of Amarillo.

Searchers from one of the assisting agencies spotted the plane’s wreckage about 2 p.m. near the East Cut of the Laguna Madre.

The East Cut is an area in the western portion of the lagoon. The plane was completely submerged in deep water.

A salvage crew went out to the scene to investigate the plane Friday afternoon. However, conditions became too murky for divers, Willacy County Sheriff Larry Spence said.

The team of four divers came from the Weslaco Fire Department, officials confirmed.

In a late attempt to recover the plane, a barge with a crane was called in to try to flip it over, allowing divers a clearer look inside, Spence said about 6 p.m.

If that did not prove successful, crews will be back out this morning to recover the plane and continue searching for the missing pilot, Spence said late Friday.

Investigators from the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board were scheduled to visit the scene today to determine what happened, Spence said.

It appeared the men circled the Charles R. Johnson Airport and tried to catch it on the way back in, he said.

The National Weather Service in Brownsville reported generally cloudy skies, little to no precipitation accumulation and 7-mile visibility at the time of the crash, meteorologist Rob Hart said. That report came from the Cameron County Airport, about 40 miles south of the crash site.

Retired Marine Corps Maj. Paul Chapman, a flight instructor at Marine Military Academy, a private prep school in Harlingen, described the plane involved, a Piper PA-30, as very high quality.

“I’ve learned over the years that there’s so much to (plane crashes), it’s not good to speculate,” said Chapman, who first learned how to fly on a Piper Twin Comanche aircraft similar to the one that crashed.

Willacy County Justice of the Peace George Solis ordered an autopsy, Spence said.

____

Valley Morning Star reporter Allen Essex contributed to this report.

____

Corey Ryan is a reporter for the Valley Morning Star in Harlingen.