Missing plane off Nauset

[Sandflee]

DB cooper re-enactment 

[bradW]

the missing piece in all of this is why no distress call? if the guy ran out of fuel why not call and let someone know where you were ditching? It all seems very weird to me...

[HugeDinghy]

This is getting odd 

[ged]

Medical emergency is my guess. 

[Ditch Jigger]

Running out of fuel isn't going to cause a plane to plummet like a rock, which is what a 4,000' per minute descent it. Even a pilot with 100-200 hours knows enough to trim the plane for max glide, and "land" it somewhere, even if in the water. 

A Piper PA-28 has enough range to easily fly from PA to MA. Depending on the particular version, it has a range of between 500 to 880 nautical miles, with a full fuel load. 

[z-man]

Maybe he faked his death for a life insurance claim for the family or it was Aliens. 

[charliestriper]

More likely he had a heart attack or stroke, lost consciousness, steep descent.

 

Sad. 
 

Condolences to his family.

[t_man7]

6 hours ago, z-man said:

Maybe he faked his death for a life insurance claim for the family or it was Aliens. 

Nauset beach aliens! 

 

Sad for his family, I hope they find closure.

Tommy

[z-man]

9 hours ago, charliestriper said:

More likely he had a heart attack or stroke, lost consciousness, steep descent.

 

Sad. 
 

Condolences to his family.

But the body wasn’t in the plane. Wouldn’t he still be strapped in the seat?

[charliestriper]

First, divers found parts of the landing gear, then the "fuselage" was found. I'm not sure how badly the plane broke up on impact. 

I am not aware that there has been speculation that it was very unusual that the pilot's body was not found in the parts of the plane that were recovered.