Small Plane Crashes After Takeoff From Milwaukee
Three people were on board, rescued from water.
Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport. Photo by Graham Kilmer.
A single-engine propeller plane crashed into Lake Michigan Thursday afternoon shortly after taking off from Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport (MKE).
Three people were on board, and all were rescued from the water.
According to a statement from the airport, a Cirrus SR22 aircraft departed Milwaukee Mitchell at 12:17 p.m., “but encountered a problem in flight and ended up in the waters of Lake Michigan at approximately 12:37 p.m.” The plane was headed to Michigan.
The crash site is approximately 20 miles east of Bender Park, according to the airport.
The U.S. Coast Guard is the lead responding agency, but is “being assisted by numerous other rescue and dive teams.”
According to a Coast Guard spokesperson, the Coast Guard’s Milwaukee station rescued the three individuals from the water with its 45-foot-long Response Boat Medium vessel.
MKE continues to operate on schedule.
FlightAware, a flight tracking service, shows that the plane took off heading east and reached a height of 7,000 feet. Approximately two-thirds of the way into the 20-minute flight, it rapidly lost speed and turned around, descending toward the water as it was aligned with the Racine airport.
The plane is registered in Michigan and was manufactured in 2021.
FlightAware flight path
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