Ten missing in Lake Erie plane crash
Coast Guard helicopters, cutter en route to site
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Members of the Lakeside Fire Department Dive Team prepare to search for the missing in Lake Erie.
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(CNN) -- A commuter flight carrying 10 people crashed into the icy waters of Lake Erie on Saturday after the pilot issued a distress call, the Coast Guard said.
"They don't see any survivors," said Paul Mulrooney, a spokesman for Georgia Express, the Canada-based airline that owned the Cessna 208 Caravan single-engine plane, one of seven in its fleet. "At this point in time, it's looking rather bleak."
The Ontario-based air service runs only during the winter, when ice makes the ferries inoperable, Mulrooney said.
A U.S. Coast Guard cutter was expected to reach the site about a half-mile west of Pelee Island by 11 p.m., about six hours after the crash, he said.
"They're pushing through 8-10 inches of ice, so progress was rather slow," Mulrooney said.
The plane itself -- which was carrying nine passengers and the pilot -- was afloat.
"They're still looking for survivors," said Coast Guard Operations Specialist 1st Class Jeff Taggart, from the Ninth District Command Center in Cleveland, Ohio.
The pilot of the plane, a regularly scheduled commuter flight that had taken off shortly before 5 p.m. en route to Windsor, Ontario, radioed that he was having trouble just after takeoff from Pelee Island, about 20 miles north of Sandusky, Ohio, Taggart said.
A U.S. Coast Guard helicopter found the crash site around 7:30 p.m.
