Lake Erie Plane Search Update: Coast Guard Looking For Missing Cessna Citation 525

UPDATE: 11:15 a.m. EST -- The Coast Guard has named some of the six people whose plane went missing over Lake Erie near Cleveland late Thursday night as their search for fuselage continues in the Great Lake.

The Cessna Citation 525 was reportedly piloted by John T. Fleming, CEO of Superior Beverage Group in Colombus, Ohio, who was accompanied by his wife, Suzanne, along with their two teenage sons, a neighbor and a neighbor's daughter. The names of the other passengers have not yet been released.

"They think they may have crashed into Lake Erie,” Fleming's father told the Toledo Blade.

“We’re just in shock,” he said. “The Coast Guard is still doing a search up there right now.”

The group attended a Cleveland Cavaliers basketball game Thursday night and was headed to the Ohio State University Airport when their plane lost contact with radars about two miles offshore.

Original Story: The Coast Guard announced Friday it was searching for a small aircraft that vanished while traveling over Lake Erie in Ohio. The plane, which the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) described as a Cessna Citation 525, departed late Thursday night from Burke Lakefront Airport in Cleveland and it "dropped off radar about two miles when it was over Lake Erie," Coast Guard Petty Officer II Class Christopher Yaw told CNN.

The plane was believed to be carrying six people to Ohio State University in Columbia. The passengers' names have not yet been released by authorities, but they are believed to include three adults and three children. The missing party had reportedly attended a Cleveland Cavaliers game earlier that night at the Quicken Loans Arena.

The Coast Guard has begun scouring the area of the crash, but said it had not yet located any debris. Authorities blame difficult weather conditions for making the search and rescue effort "very difficult." Rough seas including waves as high as 35 feet and powerful winds delayed sea operations and the Coast Guard relied on a rescue helicopter to search the 50-foot deep waters overnight. The USCGC Bristol Bay, the Coast Guard's 140-foot ice-cutting tug was reportedly on its way from Detroit to assist in the operation. Authorities said Canada's Coast Guard was also involved.

“The Coast Guard dispatched a helicopter from air station Detroit and has partnered with the Canadian Coast Guard who sent a C-130 plane down to assist in the search,” the Coast Guard said in a statement, according to local ABC-affiliated outlet WQAD.

The Cessna 525 Citation aircraft, which can seat up to 11 people, was involved in another crash earlier this year when the plane took off from Salt Lake City Airport and broke up mid-flight south of Cedar Fort, Utah. The flight was heading to Tucson, Arizona, but lost control of its aviation instruments among poor weather conditions and ultimately crashed into a snowy field. Both of its occupants were killed.