Members of the South Carolina Wing of the Civil Air Patrol recovered a missing Grumman AA1B plane with two bodies on board outside of Chester, S.C., May 27, according to a CAP release. Officials at MCAS Cherry Point, N.C., confirmed that Marine Corps 1st Lt. Ericsson W. K. Davis, an MV-22 Osprey pilot assigned to Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 264 out of MCAS New River, N.C., was among the passengers killed, reported WNCT 9. The Charlotte, N.C.,-based TV station WBTV 3 identified 22-year-old Anisa Rossi as the second passenger. The plane departed Wilmington, N.C., Friday for Clayton County, Ga., but never arrived, states the CAP release. The Air Force Rescue Coordination Center at Tyndall AFB, Fla., alerted the Civil Air Patrol Monday about the aircraft. “Four CAP planes and a seven-member ground search team were dispatched” in the hunt for the downed aircraft. “Data from CAP’s radar and cell phone forensics teams guided searchers to the Chester area, where a South Carolina Wing aircrew spotted the crashed plane,” states the release.
The U.S. military is maintaining a beefed-up presence in the Middle East, including fighters and air defense assets, following the U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities June 22 and subsequent retaliation by the Iranians against Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar.
