All confirmed dead in Lake Michigan crash

Jun 05,2007 00:00 by UPI

MILWAUKEE -- Authorites confirmed Tuesday all six members of a University of Michigan medical team died in the crash of their corporate jet into Lake Michigan.

Human remains were found after an all-night search just off the Milwaukee lakefront, the Coast Guard said, but no survivors. Evidence indicated the plane hit the water at high speed, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel said.

"We believe this to have been a non-survivable crash," Coast Guard Capt. Bruce Jones told reporters during a press briefing at the McKinley Marina.

The leased Cessna 550 had just taken off from General Mitchell International Airport on an organ donor flight to Ypsilanti for a patient at the University of Michigan Hospital, the Detroit Free Press reported. Minutes later, the pilot reported an emergency and was turning around.

The victims were Dr. David Ashburn, a physician-in-training in pediatric cardiothoracic surgery; Dr. Martinus Spoor, a cardiac surgeon; transplant donation specialists Richard Chenault II and Richard Lapensee; and pilots Dennis Hoyes and Bill Serra.