Dr. James Hall of Alma, Mich., home to all of the flyers, had been accompanying a cancer patient to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn, when their Cessna experienced engine trouble over the great lake. The plane's pilot, Jerry Freed, 66, was pulled from the water just before noon on Friday, but authorities have since given up hope of recovering the other passengers.
The U.S. Coast Guard did, however, recover Dr. Hall's medical bag, which contained a goodbye note penned in the flight's final minutes. Hall's wife, Ann, passed the letter to The Morning Sun newspaper on Saturday. It read: "Dear All, We love you. We lost power over the middle [of] Lake Michigan and turning back. We are praying to God that all [will] be taken care of. We love you. Jim."
Romain Blanquart, Detroit Free Press / MCT
Authorities abandoned hope Saturday of finding alive four people missing since a small plane plunged into Lake Michigan while flying a cancer patient to the Mayo Clinic.
Ann told the central Michigan paper that she hoped the letter would "bring comfort to all the people who knew them." She added that it was clear that the message was written on behalf of the group, not just one person.
All five people onboard the Cessna 206 were old friends from the small town of Alma, 150 miles northwest of Detroit, who came together at a time of need. Public Schools superintendent Don Pavlik was headed to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., for treatment for his esophageal cancer with his wife, Irene, according to the Detroit Free Press. The plane's owner -- construction-company boss Freed -- had offered to fly them to the hospital, a service he'd previously provided other ill locals. Hall, the Pavliks' doctor, came along to offer moral support. And another pilot friend, Earl Davidson, also joined the medical mission.
According to the Federal Aviation Administration, the plane left Gratiot Community Airport outside Alma at around 9 a.m. Friday. About an hour into the flight, Freed contacted air traffic control and said that the plane was experiencing electrical problems. Soon after, the Cessna crashed some 5 to 8 miles off the city of Ludington.
Freed was pulled from the choppy waters around 12 pm Friday by an Illinois couple vacationing on their fishing boat, but no other survivors were found. A day later, Coast Guard officials told family members that they were ending their search for the four missing passengers. "We were told that the chances of a rescue after 24 hours was very, very small," Ann Hall told The Morning Sun. The search for their bodies will continue today.
Note: Video is from Friday
The loss of so many residents has hit the small community of Alma (pop. 9,275) hard. "These five people -- you can't say a bad thing about any of them," Julie Armstrong, 48, a close friend of Irene Pavlik, told the Free Press. "And they were so humble."
And while the Coast Guard says there's now little chance that any of the four missing will be found alive, some locals continue to hold out hope. "We're still praying for a miracle here. If a community can make a miracle happen, this one can," Cindy Bosley, director of Masonic Pathways, a senior residential home where Hall served as medical director for two years, told the Free Press "But you know what? Maybe the miracle is they've left a huge impact, and it's all good."