Plane headed to St. Lucie County crashes in Bahamas, kills 2

ST. LUCIE COUNTY — Two Vero Beach businessmen on Friday flew to the Bahamas and were scheduled to return this week to the Treasure Coast, but the plane they used crashed shortly after takeoff Monday afternoon - killing both people on board, according to information obtained Tuesday.

However, U.S. and Bahamian officials have not confirmed whether the two people killed were Vero Beach residents Frank Delaporte and David Castle, according to Joyce Castle, ex-wife of David Castle, who spoke in an interview Tuesday morning. The plane's co-owner, James M. Jones of Vero Beach, told Joyce Castle both men took the plane to the Bahamas on Friday.

Federal officials confirmed two men were flying in a single-engine, four-seat plane en route to the St. Lucie International Airport.

Realtor David Castle, 50, is co-owner of the plane, and Delaporte owns Delaporte's Heating and Cooling in Vero Beach.

Joyce Castle said her ex-husband made periodic trips to the Bahamas recently, for both business and pleasure. She said she last spoke with him last week. David Castle has no other family living on the Treasure Coast, but his relatives in Ohio have been contacted, Joyce Castle said.

The plane, identified as a 1967 single-engine Mooney M20C, is thought to have crashed about 1:45 p.m. between 20 and 30 miles off Freeport, Bahamas, FAA spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen said Tuesday morning. FAA officials learned of the incident after an air traffic control facility in Freeport alerted an air traffic control center in Miami, Bergen said.

According to FAA records obtained from the plane's tail number, David Castle co-owned the plane with Jones.

The Royal Bahamian Defense Force responded to the crash, U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer Nick Ameen said Tuesday morning. However, the Coast Guard didn’t respond after the Royal Bahamian Defense Force indicated it had the situation under control, he said.

Ameen said a person on a fishing vessel apparently saw the crash and reported it to the Bahamian Air Sea Rescue Association, which he described as a volunteer association similar to the Coast Guard Auxiliary.

Police discovered the remains of the two occupants of the plane during a search of the wreckage, Basil Rahming, chief superintendent of police for the Northern Bahamas, told the Bahamas Journal. Rahming said the remains were taken to Rand Memorial Hospital and an autopsy will be performed, according to the newspaper.

Rahming told the Bahamian newspaper on Monday the duty officer at the Police Dispatch Centre in Freeport was alerted around 1:39 p.m. by the dock master at Old Bahama Bay about an aircraft spotted going down about a mile offshore. The wreckage of an aircraft was also seen resting on the sea floor in extremely deep water, he said.

Rahming said all radio contact had been lost after the aircraft departed from Grand Bahama International Airport around 1:19 p.m.

The Civil Aviation Department of the Bahamas is also investigating this incident. Captain Patrick Rolle with the Flight Standards Inspectorate division of the department told the newspaper Tuesday the recovery of the aircraft might prove especially difficult given the depth of the water and the condition of the sea. He said that even without the aircraft, the investigation will continue.

“We will be looking to see if there were human factors involved, such as the health of the pilot," Rolle said. "We will also try to determine if there were mechanical factors involved, such as when the last maintenance check was performed on the aircraft.”