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Plane wreckage found but 2 men remain missing

Authorities say they’ve found the wreckage of a small plane that crashed in a mud-bottomed New Orleans lake 24 miles wide and 40 miles long.

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A woman survived Friday night’s crash but two men, the pilot and another passenger, remained unaccounted for.

On Sunday, a New Orleans police dive team found the plane’s wreckage near the Lakefront Airport, police said.

A diver in the water signals to a New Orleans Fire Department boat while searching for the wreckage Sunday.

The good Samaritan told the responders that the plane was on a training flight, the Coast Guard said.

The airport is located about 10 miles northeast of downtown New Orleans, Louisiana.

A spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration, which is assisting in the investigation, said it could take anywhere from a few months to a year before an investigation wraps up.

Preston said the Coast Guard had no time frame for potentially being called off the search effort for the two missing men.

He says retrieval was to begin early Monday about 1,000 feet west of the runway the Cessna was heading for. Her condition was not available Sunday.

In addition to rescue boats and a helicopter the divers from the police department are also using sonar technology to help in the search for the missing men.

“There happened to be a boat right near there that scooped her up”, Morris said.

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Holmes said a crew from the fire department was dispatched around 8:30 am.to the scene.

Crews to retrieve plane from lake; 2 men still missing