NEWS SOURCE

Press Release

Plane Crash Update

Miramar Beach, FL (March 7, 2010) –

Investigators with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) along with the National Transportation

Safety Board (NTSB) are in South Walton County. They will work on trying to determine a cause for the crash

of a single-engine aircraft, which went down in the Gulf of Mexico at 12:36 yesterday afternoon.

The World War II era AT6-Texan went down about a mile offshore from Topsail Hill Preserve State

Park, located between Grayton Beach and Miramar Beach. Shortly after making impact, the plane would sink.

The Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office Dive Team helped locate the aircraft, and recovered the two bodies

inside.

The pilot has been identified as 60-year-old Dr. Herman Evan Zeiger of Birmingham, Alabama. A

positive identification has “not” been made of his female passenger. It is pending an autopsy scheduled for

tomorrow at the Medical Examiner’s Office in Fort Walton Beach.

A salvage team from Atlanta, Georgia has arrived to recover the aircraft. Once out of the water, it will

allow FAA and NTSB Personnel to examine the wreckage to help determine what may have gone wrong.

Besides the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office Dive Team, the Walton County Sheriff’s Office would

like to thank the numerous other agencies’ for their assistance: the U.S. Coast Guard, the Florida Fish and

Wildlife Conservation Commission, the South Walton Fire District, and The Florida Department of

Environmental Protection.

The Walton County Sheriff’s Office Helicopter (Air One) also provided crucial information to those on

the water searching for the aircraft.

###