Businessman and pilot from Plant City are dead in plane crash

CEDAR KEY -- Divers have located the fusilage and remaining two victims of a plane crash in the Gulf of Mexico near Cedar Key that took the life of a businessman and a pilot from Plant City and a woman from Iowa.

Cedar Key Police Chief Virgil Sandlin said the wreckage was located about 2.9 miles off the island community, and the remains of the pilot and a woman passenger were inside. They are being brought back to the Medical Examiner's office. The pilot was identified as Frank Gonzalez, 48, of Plant City, and the passenger was identified as Julia Kelly, 49, of Solon, Iowa.

John Borchard, 43, whose home is on Harbour Island in Tampa, was one of three people aboard a Cessna plane that left the Cedar Key Airport early Saturday for a short, impromptu plane flight that ended in a fiery crash, Sandlin confirmed.

The aircraft originally departed from Plant City Airport on Friday evening with six people aboard, according to the Coast Guard. It landed at Cedar Key Airport Friday evening. About midnight, the plane took off again with three passengers aboard heading south-southwest for what was supposed to be a 10-minute flight. At 2 a.m. today, the Federal Aviation Administration notified the Coast Guard that the plane was missing.

-- Mike Sanserino, Justin George, Andrew Meacham and Stephanie Garry, Times Staff Writers