BASSETERRE, St. Kitts- TWO bodies and a plane that went missing on Oct. 13 in the USVI were found.
The bodies are said to be those of Rachel Hamilton and Darwin Carr and were discovered inside the Piper Aztec plane on Oct 21.
On the previous day, the plane was discovered near midnight, lying upside down in 100 feet of water with one wing detached according to reports.
Government House spokesman, Jean Greaux, told the media that initially searchers thought the plane contained just one body, but further inspection early Sunday after the plane was raised from the waters near Cyril E. King Airport on St. Thomas showed there were two.
The captain, Kirby Hodge is still missing. The plane had crashed a little over five miles short of the St. Thomas Airport.
The lone survivor, Valerie Jackson Thompson, was pulled from the water about nine hours after the plane disappeared.
On Oct. 13, reports circulated that Captain Kirby Hodge who owns Rainbow International Airlines, and his passengers may have disappeared after taking off from St. Croix sometime after 6:00 a.m.
Hodge who is a popular Anguillan pilot and well known entrepreneur, is responsible for air evacuation within the region and delivering newspapers to the island of St. Croix from St. Thomas. He was returning to St. Thomas from St. Croix after picking up several passengers.
Greaux also said that government officials notified the families of Hamilton and Carr late Sunday morning that the aircraft had been found and that the two bodies had been recovered and that in all likelihood, the bodies were those of Hamilton and Carr.
There will be an autopsy that will also show the cause of death.
The U.S. Coast Guard launched a search shortly after the plane went down. It suspended operations at sunset October 15, 2012 but local government agencies as well as others continued the search throughout the week.
Meanwhile, the family of Captain Hodge has already announced that his proud aviation legacy will be upheld in his memory.
The announcement, about the immediate plans for Anguilla Air Express and Rainbow International Airlines, came in a press release on Tuesday, October 16, from his wife, Rose Hodge, who is also the company’s Executive Administrator.
“We intend to uphold the legacy that Kirby left us,” she stated. “I know he can never be replaced, but we will definitely endeavour to come as close as possible to the service that Kirby personally provided and that is synonymous with who we are as a company. Thank you for your support.”
Hodge was the Director of Operations for Rainbow International Airlines, a US-registered airline company.
It was said to have started out of a need to provide on demand luxury charter service for the business and leisure markets as well as the need to provide emergency medical evacuations.
Donna Banks, a close associate of the company, said that Hodge held a FAA Airline Transport License, flew commercially for 38 years, with over 30,000 flight hours logged and that he was type-rated in the Boeing 737, DC 3 and the Citation 550.
He was a Captain for Amerijet, Aero Virgin, Air BVI and Marshalls before starting Rainbow International in 1996.
He leaves to mourn his wife of 28 years and two sons among numerous family and friends.
