This Sept. 6, 2016, photo provided by Best Fur Friends Rescue, shows Dr. Bill Kinsinger, with Rascal, a dog from Fort Worth Animal Care & Control, in Gainesville, Texas. Official said Thursday, Jan. 4, 2018, that Kinsinger, a doctor volunteering for a dog rescue operation who failed to land his small plane at an airport in Central Texas as planned and was later tracked by fighter jets flying over the Gulf of Mexico appeared unresponsive and may have been suffering from a lack of oxygen. A Federal Aviation Administration spokesman said the plane kept flying and was last observed on radar 219 miles northwest of Cancun, Mexico, flying at 15,000 feet. Kinsinger took off from Wiley Post Airport in Oklahoma City Wednesday afternoon after filing a flight plan to land in Georgetown, Texas. (Best Fur Friends Rescue via AP)
The Associated Press
DALLAS (AP) - The Coast Guard is no longer searching for an Oklahoma pilot who went missing over the Gulf of Mexico while flying a dog-rescue mission to Texas.
The agency said in a statement Monday that Coast Guard air and seacraft and two Mexican naval ships searched for 55-year-old Dr. Bill Kinsinger for five days, covering over 18,000 square miles (31,000 sq. km).
Kinsinger, of Edmond, Oklahoma, was flying his Cirrus SR22T to Georgetown, Texas, on Jan. 3 to collect a disabled Husky to deliver to a foster home in Oklahoma. Authorities believe Kinsinger lost consciousness due to a lack of oxygen, and that he overshot his destination by hundreds of miles.
North American Aerospace Defense Command dispatched fighter jets to try to steer him back on course, but to no avail.
In this undated photo provided by Rachelle Hurd, Dr. Bill Kinsinger is pictured at the Russellville Arkansas airport in Little Rock, Arkansas. Kinsinger who volunteering for a dog rescue operation failed to land his small plane at an airport in Central Texas as planned and was later tracked by fighter jets flying over the Gulf of Mexico appeared unresponsive and may have been suffering from a lack of oxygen, officials said Thursday, Jan. 4, 2018. (Rachelle Hurd via AP)
The Associated Press
This June 6, 2016, photo provided by Best Fur Friends Rescue, shows Dr. Bill Kinsinger, with Jojo, a dog from Fort Worth Animal Care & Control, at a regional airport in northern Illinois. Officials said Thursday, Jan. 4, 2018, that Kinsinger, a doctor volunteering for a dog rescue operation who failed to land his small plane at an airport in Central Texas as planned and was later tracked by fighter jets flying over the Gulf of Mexico appeared unresponsive and may have been suffering from a lack of oxygen. A Federal Aviation Administration spokesman said the plane kept flying and was last observed on radar 219 miles northwest of Cancun, Mexico, flying at 15,000 feet. Kinsinger took off from Wiley Post Airport in Oklahoma City Wednesday afternoon after filing a flight plan to land in Georgetown, Texas. (Best Fur Friends Rescue via AP)
The Associated Press