The U.S. Coast Guard is still searching for a small airplane that was supposed to land at the Georgetown Municipal Airport Wednesday night, but went missing in the Gulf of Mexico. The pilot, identified as Bill Kinsinger, 55, of Oklahoma City, who is still missing, was a volunteer for the organization Pilots N Paws, which helps rescue animals nationwide.

Kinsinger, who was reported lost at sea Wednesday, was headed to Texas to pick up an 11-year-old husky dog, surrendered in Edinburg, Texas, to the Palm Valley Animal Center. His plane crashed into the Gulf of Mexico on its way to Texas. He planned to take the dog back to Oklahoma City, where the dog would then be transferred to Las Vegas for rehabilitation, Kate Quinn, executive director of Pilots N Paws said.

On Thursday evening, Kinsinger’s pilot friends transported the dog, named Masaru, to Oklahoma City in his honor.

Justin Blackburn was one of the pilots who helped rescue the dog.

"I kind of felt like we had already committed to it, we needed to do it, especially under the circumstances, in Bill’s honor and memory. We don’t know what happened, but we wanted to do this to kind of remember him and get the dog to a safe place," Blackburn said, according to NBC News affiliate KAGS-TV.

Blackburn said he earlier planned to transport the dog later in the week, but said Kinsinger volunteered to do it on Wednesday.

"In Bill’s always volunteering happy way ... they had a vet tech in Oklahoma City who could see the dog, so he agreed to come down yesterday and pick up the dog and take it to Oklahoma City," Blackburn added.

Instead of landing at its scheduled destination Wednesday night, the plane continued on the same course and did not answer air traffic control instructions.

"We've long said that flying rescue animals is a labor of love for our pilots; rescuing animals is Bill's passion," Quinn told the Washington Examiner in an email about Kinsinger. "He's always very upbeat and positive. Very empathetic to everyone he volunteered with encouraging us to 'save some more.'"

According to the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA), the Cirrus S22T was supposed to arrive at an airport in Georgetown, Texas, but radar data showed the flight kept going and flew south, out over the Gulf of Mexico.

By Wednesday evening, the Coast Guard received a report saying the pilot was unresponsive, likely due to lack of oxygen. Ethan Narber, a pilot and aviation enthusiast, posted on Twitter that fighter jets were scrambled to intercept the plane and noted that the pilot was upright in his seat but unresponsive.

Blackburn said he couldn't believe it when he heard what happened.

"Just what a terrible situation, I mean I’m not going to speculate, I can guess a few things that are just purely guesses, but anytime you’re out over a huge body of water in a single engine plane and you have limited fuel, that’s a tough scenario to have a happy ending to," Blackburn said.

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