Coast Guard Ends Search for Plane Crashed Off Cape Cod. It Was Flown by Roger Mills.

Nov. 3—CHATHAM — The Coast Guard has identified Roger Mills, 67, as the pilot of the plane that crashed into the ocean 3 1/2 miles off Nauset Beach in Orleans on Sunday night.

A Coast Guard spokesperson said they didn't have an address or home state for Mills, who left Reading Regional Airport in Reading, Pennsylvania, to fly to Chatham Municipal Airport on Sunday. WCAI reported Tuesday afternoon that Mills was from Woburn, Massachusetts. No one answered the phone at the Woburn address and didn't return a voicemail request for comment.

A search of online FAA records confirmed that a Roger Mills living in Woburn owns a 1979 Piper PA-28, the same make and model plane as the one that went down Sunday. According to his LinkedIn page, Mills was a retired vice president of customer service at Hologic, a global medical technology company with headquarters in Marlboro.

The National Transportation Safety Board announced Tuesday that it is opening an investigation into the crash. NTSB spokesman Peter Knudson said investigators will not travel to the Cape until the wreckage is recovered. He said he expects that a preliminary report will be released within a week or two.

Knudson said the agency didn't have much data yet except the final position from the aircraft's transponder just before it dropped into the sea.

"We're not aware of any air traffic control communications or any distress call," he said.

On Tuesday morning, the Coast Guard said it had suspended its active search for the overdue aircraft after not finding any sign of the missing pilot or aircraft.

According to Chatham Harbormaster Stu Smith, a 42-foot Coast Guard vessel continued the search during the day towing side-scan sonar about 1 1/2 miles off Nauset Beach. Side-scan sonar uses the reflection of high frequency sound pulses to create an image of the sea floor and anything on it.

A state police dive team waited on the dock at Chatham Fish Pier to investigate the wreckage if found. Vessels from the Massachusetts Environmental Police and Chatham and Harwich harbormasters' offices were also stationed at the pier to assist in the recovery effort..

Extensive search for aircraft suspended

In all, Coast Guard crews searched for a total of 55 hours, beginning on Sunday, covering more than 2,076 square miles, according to a release from the Coast Guard. The search was suspended at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday.

The plane was not found by nightfall.

"We're going to try again tomorrow," Smith said Tuesday evening.

Possible downed plane reported east of Sampson Island

Coast Guard Sector Southeastern New England received a report at 10:34 p.m. Sunday from the Air Force Regional Command Center about a possible downed, white and beige Piper PA-28 aircraft east of Sampson Island. The original call to the Air Force came from a friend of the pilot who was waiting for the aircraft at Chatham airport.

Mills left from Reading Regional Airport earlier in the day Sunday in the single-engine plane, which FAA records say he had owned since May 2020. He was supposed to have landed in Chatham around 7:30 p.m. Sunday. He had not filed a flight plan, Chatham airport manager Tim Howard said.

The Coast Guard reported that the last transponder signal from the plane came from a location 3 1/2 miles due east of Nauset Beach. The transponder revealed the plane was losing altitude fast at 4,000 feet per minute when a normal descent would be 500 to 1,000 feet per minute, according to Howard.

Search crews included a 45-foot response boat crew, MH-60 Jayhawk crew, HC-144 Ocean Sentry fixed-wing crew and Coast Guard cutters Spencer, Sanibel and Tybee.

Assisting in the search were harbormasters and their crews from Chatham, Harwich and Orleans and a towboat.

Anyone with new information about this case is asked to call Sector Southeastern New England at 508-457-3211.

Follow Doug Fraser on Twitter:@dougfrasercct

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