Before his plane crashed into a lake in Arkansas, killing him, the pilot is said to have made distress signals.
Southwest of Little Rock, in Lake Hamilton, a single-engine Cessna 177 Cardinal plane crashed early on Monday morning, according to the Garland County Sheriff’s Office.
A surviving female passenger who was ‘responsive’ at the scene of the collision was rescued by first responders and sent to the hospital, where she is still undergoing treatment.
Divers rescued The pilot in the water, but he eventually succumbed to his injuries.
Daniel Dale Jones, the 49-year-old pilot, and father of his 23-year-old daughter, Denise Jones, have been confirmed as the two onboard.
The survivor was flown to the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock for treatment.
Officials claimed the pilot’s explanation of “aircraft distress” for wanting to land at the nearby Hot Springs airstrip was accurate.
The plane was leaving Kentucky when tragedy struck.
Images online indicate the jet has wholly submerged in the water around 100 feet from the coast.
A local reporter, Rolly Hoyt, said that many groups are collaborating to retrieve the jet from the water.
The NTSB is now investigating the event. As reported by 12News, the plane in issue is registered to a company in Phoenix, Arizona.
A two-year-old child, her mother, and two others were killed earlier this month when their unresponsive corporate plane crashed into Virginia while flying over Washington, DC.
There were no survivors when rescuers found the shredded debris at the accident scene and called off the search.
While approaching its destination on Long Island, the plane suddenly reversed course for reasons that have yet to be explained.
The pilot may have been impacted by low oxygen levels, as has been theorized by certain authorities and feared by the families of the deceased.
