11-year-old girl the only survivor of plane crash that killed 4 on island in Lake Michigan
PETOSKEY, Mich. — An 11-year-old girl is the only survivor of a plane crash Saturday on an island in Lake Michigan that killed four people.
The plane went down at an airport on Beaver Island, located west of Mackinaw City, according to the Charlevoix County sheriff’s office.
The passengers who died were identified as Kate Leese and Adam Kendall of Beaver Island, and Mike Perdue of Gaylord, according to Lt. William Church of the Charlevoix County sheriff’s office. The name of the pilo has not been released.
Perdue's 11-year-old daughter was seriously injured in the crash and remained hospitalized Sunday, according to The Associated Press.
The girl's mother, Christina Perdue, told ABC News on Sunday that her daughter is in stable condition and receiving care at a children's hospital in Grand Rapids.
"We are heartbroken with the loss of my husband, a father, brother, son and friend," Perdue said in a statement to ABC. "He gave the best bear hugs, and I believe he grabbed our daughter and protected her. It's her last memory before the crash."
Leese and Kendall had moved to Beaver Island after spending years traveling. They had been planning to open Antho Vineyards, a winery and tasting room, on the island in Lake Michigan.
“It feels like a place somewhere along the road where you could stop and have a glass of wine with new friends,” Leese, a biochemist, told The Detroit News for a story published a week before the crash. “Our goal is to have that kind of place that brings people together.”
U.S. Coast Guard officials in Charlevoix confirmed the twin-engine Britten-Norman commuter plane crashed on Beaver Island on Saturday afternoon. A Coast Guard helicopter was conducting training when it received the emergency transmission, and it airlifted two people, an adult male and an 11-year-old girl, to a hospital.
The plane was flying from Charlevoix on Michigan's lower peninsula, the Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement. The FAA said it would take part in an investigation led by the National Transportation Safety Board.
Plane crashes in the area are uncommon, and this is the first crash of Island Airways, according to historical data.
The last crash in the area was in February 2001, when a pilot and passenger died after a twin-engine turboprop crashed into trees about a mile from the airport. A mother and her three children survived after waiting to be rescued in frigid winter temperatures for over 15 hours, according to a report from the Chicago Tribune.
Contributing: Associated Press