VENICE, Fla. — Four people are dead after a small plane crashed offshore Wednesday night near the Venice Fishing Pier, according to Venice Fire Rescue.
Venice police and fire personnel responded after 9:30 p.m. after receiving calls about a crash from multiple witnesses on the pier. They say the crash happened about a half-mile from the pier in the Gulf of Mexico.
The bodies of two men, later identified as 64-year-old pilot William Lumpkin and 60-year-old Ricky Beaver, were recovered.
After rescue teams searched the water Thursday morning, they recovered the bodies of 68-year-old Patricia Lumpkin and 57-year-old Elizabethe Beaver — along with a large portion of the aircraft — just before noon. The plane was reportedly 23 feet under the water.
Both couples were from Indiana, according to Venice police.
In an update Thursday afternoon, police said the group flew a Piper PA-32R single-engine plane from Albert Whitted Airport in St. Petersburg to Venice. They arrived around 5 p.m. and met friends for dinner at Sharky's On the Pier.
They left Venice Municipal Airport around 9:35 p.m. and crashed soon after takeoff, according to investigators.
Venice police are continuing to work with the Sarasota County Sheriff's Office, the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) to investigate the cause of the crash. The pier will remain closed while the investigation continues.
Back in January, three people were killed — Christian Kath, his wife Misty, and their 12-year-old daughter Lily — after they took a similar route in a small plane from St. Petersburg to Venice for dinner.
That crash also happened shortly after takeoff on the return flight to St. Pete-Clearwater International Airport. According to the NTSB, the small airplane, a Piper PA28, was departing runway 23 at Venice Municipal Airport when it started to have issues.
When asked about the similarities between the two crashes, Venice Police Patrol Division Commander Capt. Andy Leisenring said, "It's certainly unexpected."
"I’ve been working here for 16 years and the last crash was the first crash that went off into the Gulf like that. So, to have two in that short period of time is certainly unusual, but it’s really too early to make any conclusions," he said.
You can watch the full news conference below.