Woburn pilot still missing after Cape Cod crash, plane recovered

After nine dives off the coast of Chatham in one day, the Massachusetts State Police Dive Team was still unable to locate Roger Mills, 67, who disappeared after taking off from a Reading, Pa., airport Sunday.

The team has, however, found parts of the missing airplane.

As the Cape Cod Times reported, Mills, of Woburn, took off alone from Reading Regional Airport on Sunday in a four-seat 1979 Piper 28, headed for Chatham Municipal Airport, expecting to land at around 7:30 p.m.

The aircraft’s last transmitted transponder signal was at 6:49 p.m., descending at 4,000 feet per minute, about four times faster than the normal speed. The plane wasn’t reported missing until 10:34 p.m. that night, according to the Coast Guard’s Northeast 1st District. The plane is believed to have crashed about 3.5 miles east of Sampson Island.

A spokesperson for the State Police said divers were able to locate both the fuselage and part of the landing gear over several dives, but that “no further dives are planned at this time.” The State Police Dive Team worked in conjunction with the Marine unit, environmental police and local agencies, the spokesperson added.

The Cape Cod Times reported that the Coast Guard searched for Mills for 55 hours and covered over 2,000 square miles around Nauset Beach without finding him or the plane, which FAA records show Mills purchased in May 2020.

According to Mills’s LinkedIn page, he was a retired vice president of customer service at Hologic Inc., in Marlboro, a medical technology company. A Facebook profile for a retired Roger Mills in Woburn says he’s originally from Seymour, Ind.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/3GTVM6Q