Emily Lewis. Photo courtesy of Erin Staffeld.
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Ameer Ali. Photo courtesy of Stewart Turner. Turner writes: "(Ali is) on the left. We were just at a cabin on a camping trip. ... Ameer's the kind of guy who would take the shirt off his back for his friends."
The Coast Guard today has no plans to resume searching for the two pilots on board a cargo flight that crashed near Sand Point, a spokesman says.
The Beechcraft 1900 went down around midnight Thursday night. Coast Guard aircraft and fishing vessels looked for hours Friday -- finding debris in the water but no sign of ACE Air Cargo pilot Ameer Ali, 28, and co-pilot Emily Lewis, 23.
ACE Air Cargo announced it had joined the search yesterday on its Web site, but otherwise declined to comment. The Coast Guard called off their search Friday night.
There are no plans to begin looking again today, said Petty Officer 3rd Class Jonathan Lally. "All they were finding was the debris and there was nothing new that developed."
I asked yesterday and today if that means it's safe to say the pilots are presumed dead. Lally said the Coast Guard doesn't make that call, and only labels them "missing."
Here's the ACE Air Cargo statement:
ACE Air Cargo has joined the search for our Beech 1900 aircraft, that disappeared shortly after departing Sand Point, Alaska with two pilots on board yesterday evening. At this time, we are focused on the welfare of our pilots and their families and will be releasing no further information at this time. We ask that the media respect the privacy of our employees and their families at this time. More information will be released as it becomes available.
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