AUGUSTA, Maine—Authorities returned Saturday to the icy woods where a small plane crashed just a few miles from the state airport after it took off during a storm Friday evening to recover the remains of two victims believed to be a well-known Bay Area telecommunications pioneer and her 10-year-old son.Maine Public Safety Department spokesman Stephen McCausland said pending positive determination, the victims were believed to be Jeanette Symons of San Francisco, to whom the plane was registered, and one of her children.
A co-founder with Symons of Industrious Kid, a company formed in 2005 to create online products for children with age-appropriate content, said Symons, 45, and her son Balan were returning to her home in Steamboat Springs, Colo., when the crash occurred in West Gardiner.
"She's been flying for over 20 years. She's a top notch pilot," said Tim Donovan, the vice president of marketing at Industrious Kid, which is based in Oakland, Calif., and where Symons was chief executive officer.
"She was very, very well known in the telecommunications industry," Donovan said, calling Symons a visionary.
Donovan said Symons' son had been attending a weeklong ski camp.
Symons leaves a 7-year-old daughter and is survived by her parents and two brothers, Donovan said.
According to Industrious Kid, Symons previously co-founded Zhone Technologies and Ascend Communications, Inc., which was subsequently purchased by Lucent Technologies.
A spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration said the pilot of the six-seat Cessna Citation C-525 declared an emergency minutes after taking off but was unable to fly to safety.
Freezing rain was falling in Augusta at the time of the crash, according to the National Weather Service.
Local, state and federal officials were at the scene Saturday morning, McCausland said, adding that positive identification of the victims would be up to the state medical examiner's office.
McCausland said two FAA investigators had joined deputy sheriffs, state wardens and state troopers in West Gardiner where the plane went down and that the National Transportation Safety Board was also sending someone.
McCausland said airport officials had said there had been no deicing of the plane before takeoff.
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