UPDATE: Body of Pilot, Missing Plane Found in River Near Moose Lake Airport

65-year-old Thomas Stillwell, a Twin Cities based urologist, is believed to be the person dead

MOOSE LAKE, Minn. – The FAA is investigating a private plane crash near the Moose Lake Airport that killed the pilot, who was believed to be the only person on board.

Authorities tell us the single engine propeller plane was expected to take off from the Moose Lake Airport at about 4:30 p.m. Wednesday and land at the Crystal Airport near the Twin Cities shortly after 5:00 p.m. But the plane never arrived at its destination.

The aircraft was reported missing and an extensive ground search began on Wednesday evening, but rain and snow made it tough.

“Air search was impossible last night due to the weather conditions here,” said Carlton County Sheriff Kelly Lake. “It was near blizzard-like conditions and even with that the ground search became very difficult and became impossible at one point and the search was suspended.”

At about 7:00 a.m. Thursday, shortly after the search started again, the plane was found partially submerged in the Moose Horn River about have a mile Northwest of the Moose Lake airport.

“We did find the body of the pilot,” said Lake. “At this point every indication leads us to believe it’s Thomas Stillwell, however the medical examiner was called in. An autopsy will be conducted to determine the exact cause of death and positive identification.”

Our sister station, Fox 9 in Minneapolis, reports 65-year-old Dr. Thomas Jay Stillwell was a urologist based in the Twin Cities who was seeing patients at the Moose Lake Hospital.

Since the local airport is not staffed and has no air traffic control, authorities don’t know for sure if Stillwell left on schedule or even if left from Moose Lake.

“Flight logs at the airport didn’t have anything on there to indicate the time or anything so we’re not sure yet,” explained Lake.

The cause of the crash is under investigation by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).

It hasn’t been determined if weather was a factor in the crash.

“It hadn’t started snowing too heavily yet,” said Lake of the conditions around 4:30 p.m. “It had maybe just started some rain and then some snow and it wasn’t until a little bit alter that the snow started to come down more heavily.”

HIBBING, Minn. – A small plane that went missing in eastern Minnesota has been found.

An FAA Spokesperson says the private plane was found in a river near the Moose Lake airport.

The Carlton County Sheriff’s Office says the Mooney M20J single-engine plane filed a flight plan with the Federal Aviation Administration for a Wednesday trip from the Moose Lake Carlton County Airport to the Crystal Airport in the Twin Cities. The plane was scheduled to land in Crystal at 5:15 but never arrived.

The identity of those on board the plane has not yet been released but according to the Star Tribune, the head of maintenance at the Moose Lake airport states the plane was often used by a Moose Lake physician for medical outreach.

The plane has a tail number of N111JP. The Tribune also reports it’s registered to the nonprofit Club Cherokee, which operates private aircraft for members.