NEW ORLEANS – The Coast Guard is searching for a small plane that may have gone down in the Gulf of Mexico overnight.
The Piper Aztec twin engine plane was scheduled to land in Gonzalez at 8:30 p.m. on October 16, according to the Coast Guard.
Family members of the pilot, a Missouri man named Steven Schumacher, contacted the Coast Guard approximately two hours after Schumacher was expected to land to report him missing.
Schumacher was the only person on the plane.
The small plane’s last known position was 380 nautical miles east of Corpus Christi, Texas, when an online flight tracker indicated the plane was about 50 feet above the water.
The Gulf of Mexico has been roiled by stormy weather in recent days, and meteorologists are tracking a potential tropical cyclone in the area of the Gulf where the plane was last spotted.
A Coast Guard Ocean Sentry air crew and a Secretaria de Marina vessel from the Mexican Navy have been mobilized for the search effort.
