25 Jul 2014

American Samoa may drag seafloor for missing pilot

3:25 pm on 25 July 2014

Searchers for an American man, missing after his plane crashed into the sea off American Samoa, are considering using fishing technology to drag the ocean floor to find him.

Babar Suleman and his son, Harris, were on the single engine plane and endeavouring to fly a round the world in record time of 30 days.

Harris' body was recovered by searchers yesterday.

The site where the last signal was received from the plane is too deep for divers and the director of Homeland Security, Utualii Iuniasolua Savusa, says they are now looking for help from the fishing industry.

"Next method is to try to co-ordinate with our fishing industry to see what they have where a net is cast onto the bottom of the ocean and then dragging it and seeing what debris we can pick from down on the bottom of the ocean where the signals were."

The director of Homeland Security in American Samoa, Utualii Iuniasolua Savusa