Four days after the crash of a rented Piper Cherokee that killed three members of a St. Petersburg family, the search has now been called off for the pilot, Christian Kath.
He and his family were on their way back to Albert Whitted Airport from Venice, but data from the web site Flight Aware shows the plane only reached an altitude of 135 feet before it disappeared from radar. Pilot Jerrid Velte tells News Channel 8 he flies a similar single-engine plane out of Venice, and says taking off from a runway that ends right at the water can be very tricky. "You don't have any way of your brain knowing what's up or down, because you can't see the horizon. There's no boat lights. There's no city lights," Velte said.
The NTSB is still looking into the crash, and reports indicate it could be some time before the agency issues its findings.
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