CLEVELAND — The Coast Guard suspended its search for a possible downed aircraft in southern Lake Michigan Wednesday morning at about 9 a.m., CDT.
There were no correlating reports of missing or downed aircraft in the search area.
Watchstanders at Coast Guard Station Calumet Harbor, Ill., received notification from a fisherman on Wolf Lake near Chicago at about 6:30 p.m., CDT on Tuesday, that he heard a pilot make a distress call over citizens’ band radio. An aircrew from Coast Guard Air Facility Waukegan, Ill., aboard an MH-65C Dolphin rescue helicopter, a boatcrew from Station Calumet Harbor, aboard a 45-foot Response Boat-Medium, and a Chicago Police Department helicopter searched an area of southern Lake Michigan near Wolf Lake and the Calumet River until about 2 a.m., CDT.
Coast Guard rescue boat and aircrews launched again at dawn and conducted first-light searches from Rainbow Park, in Chicago, to Gary, Ind. Rescue crews searched a total area of about 108 square miles.
The Coast Guard suspends a search and rescue case with extremely great care and deliberation. Only after a probable search area is saturated with the appropriate number of assets and resources, as well as maximum crew effort, and persons in distress are still not located, a decision is made to suspend a case.
The Coast Guard can resume a search if credible information is received that persons reported missing have survived.
