Search called off for missing pilot of small plane that crashed with family off Venice
The search for a 42-year-old St. Petersburg husband and father missing after the plane he was piloting crashed over the weekend in the Gulf of Mexico has been halted.
Christian Kath, 42, his wife Misty Kath, 43, and their daughter Lily, 12, flew from St. Petersburg Saturday afternoon to Venice to have dinner. But the family never made it back to St. Petersburg. Their plane crashed into the Gulf about one third of a mile off the coast — just west of the Venice Municipal Airport and Venice Beach.
Misty Kath’s body was found about 2 1/2 miles offshore on Sunday morning by recreational boaters and divers. At the same time, the Federal Aviation Administration had alerted Venice police that the single-engine Piper PA-28 Cherokee the Kath family had rented had not returned to St. Petersburg as expected.
The plane’s wreckage was spotted by the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office about four hours later in about 15 feet of water, a third of a mile offshore. Police divers later found Lily Kath’s body inside.
After searching for three days and consulting with the U.S. Coast Guard, Venice police called off the search for Christian Kath.
“The possible parameters of the search area exceed over 2,000 square nautical miles,” police said on Facebook midday Wednesday.
The victims’ family — which includes another daughter who was not on the plane — had already been told by police.
Police asked boaters on the water from Sarasota Bay south to Gasparilla to be aware of the possibility of sighting Christian’s Kath’s remains or debris from the small plane. Any boaters who spot either are asked to contact the Coast Guard using marine radio on channel 16.
This story was originally published December 7, 2022 at 2:05 PM.
