State Police personnel are assisting the Federal Aviation Administration and forest rangers with an investigation into the crash of a 2010 Jabira 4 airplane Thursday morning in northern Herkimer County. At approximately 8:30 a.m., on Aug. 16, a mayday was monitored by authorities indicating that the airplane, piloted by Benjamin P. Brown, age 34, of Southern Pines, N.C., was experiencing mechanical failure near Gull Lake in the town of Webb.

Military and State Police aircraft responded to the area and discovered the Jabira aircraft almost totally submerged in approximately 30 feet of water in Gull Lake. The pilot and his passenger, Charles E. Davis, age 44, of Cedar City, Utah were uninjured in the crash. It was reported that the aircraft had departed Burlington, Vermont earlier in the morning and was flying at an altitude of approximately 6,500 feet when the plane suffered a malfunction.

State Police personnel remained on site for the evening and the investigation will resumed this morning, Aug. 17.