Aviation community mourns pilots who died in Louisiana plane crash: 'Unprecedented loss'

The southeast Louisiana aviation community was left reeling Thursday morning by the now-confirmed deaths of two pilots who went down with a plane that had crashed in a marsh southwest of Raceland the night before.

Lafourche Parish officials identified those aboard as Lyle Panepinto and Lauren Menkemeller. Their bodies were recovered around 8 p.m. Thursday.

"This is an unprecedented loss," said Emmett Bartholomew, a pilot and flight instructor. "Both of these people are so good at what they do. It's an absolute shock."

Panepinto, 70, of Gretna, was the owner of Southern Seaplane Inc., a Belle Chasse charter company started by his father in 1954. In addition to running the business, Panepinto was an instructor and a designated pilot examiner for the Federal Aviation Administration. 

"If you were a pilot and you were from around here, you had to know who he was," said Brian Trascher, also a pilot and vice-president of the United Cajun Navy. "He's probably signed off on half the pilots in the New Orleans area."

Menkemeller, whose age was not available, was a young but experienced pilot who had a real excitement and passion for flying.

"She always had a big smile on her face. She loved to help anyone with anything that had to do with aviation," Bartholomew said. 

Hard to reach 

Panepinto's 1976 Cessna 210L went down Wednesday night in a marshy area about two miles west of the intersection of Highway 90 and Louisiana 182, according to Lafourche Parish President Archie Chiasson.

The small plane was flying from Belle Chasse to Houma and crashed at about 8:30 p.m. Rescue crews and the Lafourche Parish Sheriff's Office searched for the aircraft but were hampered by darkness and the wet terrain, according to Lafourche Parish spokesperson James Duhe. 

Authorities set back out Thursday morning and found the plane's wreckage deep in the marsh in an area accessible only by airboat, parish officials said. Much of the plane was underwater, with only small pieces visible.

Local officials spent much of the day Thursday out at the site of the crash waiting to get the green light from federal investigators to begin recovering the plane and pilots who are likely inside. 

The National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration are investigating the crash, and spokesperson Jennifer Gabris said an NTSB investigator would likely arrive on site Friday to document the scene and investigate the aircraft. Investigators gather flight track data, recordings of air traffic control communications, aircraft maintenance records, weather data, information about the pilots involved, witness statements, surveillance footage and more.

A preliminary report will be available within 30 days, Gabris said. 

The FAA was on scene as of 3:45 p.m. Thursday and will likely issue a preliminary accident report within the next day, a spokesperson said.

Recovery efforts began Thursday evening.

It's unclear why the plane went down, but the National Weather Service of New Orleans had issued a wind advisory that day for much of the region. NWS forecaster Christopher Bannan said winds in the Houma area were whipping at an average of around 20 mph with gusts of 30 mph at the time of the crash. 

Low hanging clouds in the area could have caused some issues, but Bannan said they weren't low enough to warrant major flight cancelations or restrictions. 

'Heartbreaking loss'

Parish officials said they believe Menkemeller and Panepinto were out logging flight hours when the plane went down.

Flight instructor Bartholomew had known Panepinto for more than 15 years and called him an outstanding aviator and a gentleman with a kind demeanor. 

Though Panepinto presided over final testing for FAA pilot licenses, Bartholomew said he always assured his students that Panepinto was a fair and practical examiner. 

"His wonderful Southern and Cajun personality would very quickly put people at ease, and they would feel less tense during the test," Bartholomew said. 

James Karst, communications director for the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana, said Southern Seaplane is the go-to company for coastal professionals in the New Orleans area, making Panepinto a well-known figure among many local coastal groups.

"He was a great pilot and very knowledgeable about coastal land loss and restoration," Karst said. "... many of us at CRCL and other coastal groups knew Lyle well. So this is a tragic and heartbreaking loss."

Whenever the Cajun Navy needed to go airborne for their search operations, Panepinto and Southern Seaplane were the organization's first call, said Trascher, of the Cajun Navy. Panepinto was generous with both his time and his planes, waiving pilot and rental fees to lend a hand. 

"All we had to do was let them know what was going on. They bent over backwards to make sure we could get up in the air," Trascher said. 

Trascher flew with Panepinto and Menkemeller as recently as December when both flew the Cajun Navy during the search for Hunter Slezak, a 7-year-old boy who disappeared while shrimping with his father in the waters off Dauphin Island in Alabama. 

Trascher called Menkemeller a well-trained and conscientious pilot. 

"She mentioned that flying for Southern was her dream job," Trascher said. 

Menkemeller had recently been hired by Southern Seaplane, according to Bartholomew. She wasn't originally from the New Orleans area but met a lot of local pilots after joining the Louisiana Wing Civil Air Patrol, a civilian auxiliary of the U.S. Air Force, he said. Menkemeller was also a flight instructor.

"She just wanted to fly," Bartholomew said. "She saw a bright future for herself, enjoying something that she had a passion for."

Panepinto hired Menkemeller due to her vast experience, professionalism and passion for aviation.

“It’s the same reason I wanted to hire her,” Bartholomew said.