Passenger falls out of private airplane flying above Biscayne Bay

via the New York Daily News:

Passenger falls out of private airplane flying above Biscayne Bay

A search effort is underway after a passenger fell out of a private airplane some 2,000 feet above Biscayne Bay off the Florida coast.

The pilot of the TA 46 Piper Malibu plane called in a mayday to report a door ajar and a passenger that had fallen out of the six-person plane, a U.S. Coast Guard spokesman said. The plane was traveling around 200 miles per hour when the passenger fell out of the aircraft.

The pilot subsequently safely landed at Tamiami Airport near Miami.

The search is concentrated about eight miles southeast of the airport, the spokesman said.

“We don’t assume anything,” Petty Officer Mark Barney said of the person’s chances of survival. “We’re treating it as a search and rescue operation and going from there.”

Barney said three Miami-Dade Police boats, a Dade County Fire Rescue Helicopter and a Coast Guard rescue boat were participating in the search.

FAA spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen says the call came at 1:30 p.m. Thursday.