A single engine plane crashed at the Destin Airport after if hit a puddle of water and slid off into the grass, the Okaloosa County Sheriff's Office reports.
FORT WALTON BEACH State Rep. Ray Sansom and state Sen. Don Gaetz were seated at the end of a long conference table, meeting as they often did with the Northwest Florida Daily News editorial board, when Sansom received the call notifying him that he had been designated to serve as Speaker of the House during the 2009-10 legislative sessions.
It was hard to tell, on that day in 2005, which of the two men was happier when Sansom shared the news.
Gaetz and Sansom were friends and political allies before either attained state office. In 2000, after Sansom lost his first race for the Florida House to veteran politician Jerry Melvin, Gaetz, then-Okaloosa County s School Superintendent, hired him as the school district s director of community affairs.
pretty strong still right now. reporter: it is still pretty strong. i mean periodically you know, earlier today when i was doing my show i was hugging one of the pieces of the dock because it was kicking me around and i m surprised it is still as strong as it is. it is still a dangerous situation and people are being told don t come back at least yet, right? reporter: wolf, i missed the question. i m sorry. i had something in my ear. come again. i said it is still a dangerous situation and people are being told don t come back yet? reporter: no, don t come back yet. i mean don t come back yet. we need to make sure ems and fire crews can get out on the roads because there are still flooding issues here where i am. but, no, do not come out yet. make sure you heed the warning. at least i can tell you that the destin airport is reopening tomorrow morning. brook, thank you very much. brooke baldwin reporting for us. the breaking news continues next as we follow hurricane micha
the area from interrupted or disrupted the full scale recovery effort. again, we have a large task force, if you will that s in place. and it s prepared to begin those operations as soon as we have day light and good weather. the other aircraft you told us about earlier that was involved in that training mission, i m sure they ve spoken to the pilots of that aircraft. have you gotten any information as to what unfolded with the other aircraft? i have not. other than at some point during their return to the area they were flying from, the destin airport that they did lose contact with the other aircraft involved in the incident. i did want to reiterate that the two aircraft were not involved in a midair mishap of some sort. to the best of our knowledge, certainly. that aircraft that did recover all safe and sound. everyone was accounted for. they did lose contact with the first aircraft that we ve been
from eglin air force base spokesman andy bourland who says the search is centered around the gulf of mexico. the full scale of the search and rescue mission will probably be starting here very quickly. the coast guard has actually deployed a number of vessels to the area. the county and some state organizations as well are providing boats to assist with the search mission. that is beginning now as the fog has lifted and we finally have daybreak. i want to bring in retired army colonel jack jacobs a medal of honor recipient. before we talk to jack start with meteorologist bill karins. what can you tell us about the weather and how that may have contributed to what happened. now that we have more off a timeline set here we know the plane went missing, the helicopter, about 8:30 central time. i can pinpoint the weather conditions around that time. as they were preparing for this mission, reportedly they left the destin airport heading in