River Is Searched for Downed Plane

Rescue crews continued to search for a small aircraft Saturday, a day after two women reported seeing the plane crash into the Hudson River.

Police searched what would be a 20-block area of the river and sent in a scuba team aided by sonar equipment that could identify the presence of any submerged aircraft. But on Saturday, there was no sign of the single-engine, high-wing aircraft with a blue stripe down one side that the witnesses described.

Area airports had received no report of any missing or lost aircraft, nor did authorities receive any mayday transmission.

A review of radar records showed that a plane had dropped below radar in the vicinity of the bridge, the New York Times reported. The Federal Aviation Administration said the plane could have been flying in a “visual flight rules” corridor--not under the auspices of any air traffic control facility or on radar.

The witnesses were driving together across the George Washington Bridge on Friday morning. The Times reported that two other people on the ground said they saw the plane go down.