By Calvin Palmer
The president of a Texas company was one of five people on board a small plane that crashed off Florida’s Gulf Coast yesterday afternoon.
Quality Powder Coating LP, of Carrollton, said today that president Roland Schurrer, 40, and Steve Barrows, 33, a company marketing representative and pilot, were aboard the twin-engined Cessna.
Two Tampa residents were also among the passengers. One of them was an employee of McNichols Company. Their identities have not yet been released.
A U.S. Coast Guard spokesman said human remains were found overnight by the cutter Alligator as it searched through the wreckage scatted across a two-mile area. It was unclear how many people the remains belong to.
The plane was flying from McKinney, Texas, to Tampa when it went down yesterday afternoon about 20 miles west of Port Richey.
The Federal Aviation Administration said air traffic controllers in Jacksonville lost radio and radar contact with the plane after it reported turbulence at 1:52 p.m.
A forecaster at the National Weather Service said there were thunderstorms and lightning in the area at the time.
[Based on reports by the Associated Press and St Petersburg Times.]
