Peninsula Daily News
news sources
BALTIMORE — Search crews recovered the body of a Sequim woman today that is believed to be the victim of a small-plane crash in Chesapeake Bay, Maryland State Police said.
Mary L. Lagerquist, 78, had been a passenger in a plane piloted by her son, Lanson C. Ross III, 48, of Fort Washington, Md., a suburb of Washington, D.C.
Ross told investigators the two-seat, single-engine aircraft lost power and that he was trying to reach Smith Island, which is at the entrance to Chesapeake Bay.
Soon after his 3:30 p.m. distress call to Patuxent River Naval Air Station, he was forced to crash into Chesapeake Bay. The plane sank rapidly but both Ross and his mother, who was injured in the crash, were able to exit, police said.
The two were attempting to swim together to shore in rough, chilly waters. After about a mile, she could not continue, police said. Her body was recovered off the southern end of Smith Island about 9 a.m. EDT (6 a.m. PDT) today, police said.
“He was helping her swim through rough seas with waves up to five feet and temperatures in the low 60s,” said Maryland State Police spokesman Greg Shipley. “You can only imagine how difficult that was.”
Ross made it to shore about 8 p.m. EDT Sunday and was taken to Peninsula Regional Medical Center in Salisbury, where he was treated and released. The plane has yet to be located.
The mother and son were flying back to Hyde Field in Clinton, Md., after an excursion to Tangier Island, Va., Sunday, when the plane developed problems.
Soon after the plane disappeared from radar about three miles off the southwest side of the island in Somerset County, the U.S. Coast Guard, Maryland Natural Resources Police and Virginia Marine Police conducted water and air searches of the area..
The National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration are continuing to investigate the crash and recover the plane.
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The Baltimore Sun contributed to this report.
