A body plucked on Friday from the ocean off Florida’s Key Biscayne was that of a victim of the seaplane crash earlier in the week off Miami Beach, authorities said.
The bodies of 19 of the 20 people on board the ill-fated aircraft, including three infants and two pilots, were recovered soon after the crash on Monday, according to the U.S. Coast Guard.
The 20th body was swept out to sea, however. It was discovered by a boater shortly before midday on Friday about three nautical miles off Key Biscayne, the Coast Guard said in a statement.
It did not identify the victim but said the Miami Dade Medical Examiner’s office had confirmed it was someone who was aboard the 58-year-old Grumman G-73T Turbine Mallard when it plowed into shallow waters near Miami’s Art Deco District on Monday.
The seaplane crashed moments after taking off for the Bahamian island of Bimini.
Federal investigators raised the wreckage of the twin-engine plane from the seabed off Miami Beach on Wednesday and said they had found “fatigue cracks” that might have caused the aging aircraft to lose its right wing.
The medical examiner’s office could not be reached for immediate comment and spokesmen for Chalk’s Ocean Airways, which operated the aircraft, were unavailable.
