FRITCH, Texas (AP) - A witness tells federal investigators that a plane found submerged in a Panhandle lake after 24 years was landing on ice days before the fatal crash.

Earnest Vanover is 84. He tells a National Transportation Safety Board official that he saw the Beechcraft 77 landing on frozen Lake Meredith days before the January 27th, 1984, crash.

On the day of the crash, Vanover again saw the plane fly low over the lake before it dropped from sight. As Vanover watched for the plane to fly out of the canyon, he heard an engine roar for several minutes before it went silent.

Vanover speculates ice was too thin to support the plane that time and its wheel became caught, causing the aircraft to crash in the middle of the lake.

No human remains have been found and a search for them has been suspended pending additional evidence. Still missing are the 25-year-old pilot, Steven Lampe, and 23-year-old passenger Lary Lucas. Both came from Amarillo.