Airplane crash in Gulf of Mexico: 2 dead, 1 missing

A private airplane crashed into the Gulf of Mexico off the Florida coast Saturday night, with two people confirmed dead as authorities searched for a third person believed to have been on the flight.

Authorities in Venice, Florida, initiated a search Sunday after 10 a.m. following a Federal Aviation Administration inquiry to the Venice Municipal Airport about an overdue single-engine Piper Cherokee that had not returned to its origin airport.

Divers located the wreckage of the rented airplane around 2 p.m. about a third of a mile offshore, directly west of the Venice airport. Rescuers found the bodies of a woman and girl in the crash. A third person, believed to be a male who was the pilot or a passenger, remained missing Sunday.