OTL

Hope is beginning to fade for searchers who are braving choppy Lake Michigan to seek four still missing in a Friday plane crash.

Don and Irene Pavlik, Earl Davidson, and Dr. James Hall remain missing more than thirty hours following the accident. Pilot Jerry Freed was rescued on Friday, and released from the hospital Saturday. He has thus far declined to comment to the media.

The Alma residents were setting out to take Don Pavlik to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota for a cancer treatment. Jerry Freed offered to fly the Pavliks and owned the plane. James Hall, a friend of the Pavliks, volunteered to go along for moral support.

The plane took off from Gratiot Community Airport, near Alma, around 9 am. After suffering electrical failure, the plane crashed roughly 8 miles offshore from Ludington. Freed was soon rescued by Illinois vacationers on a boat, but the other four have remained missing. According to the vacationers, Freed said at the time of rescue that at least two of the others were able to get out of the plane.

Private vessels and the Coast Guard continue to scour the area as residents of Alma mourn and wait for news.