MIDDLETOWN, Pa. -- Officials say they may never find the body of a man who quit his job with a commuter airline, boarded one of its planes and calmly stepped out of an emergency door at 3,000 feet, leaving only a sneaker behind.
About 75 police and volunteers during the weekend centered their search for the body of Wilmer Stillman, 26, of Middletown, Pa., in a wooded area east of where the flight originated.
However, the search was called off Sunday night and officials said a decision on whether to resume the search would not be made until today.
'There's a possibility he's in a tree somewhere and we won't see him,' state police trooper Tom Nirosky said. 'We're all looking on the ground.'
State police said they presumed Stillman died in the plunge.
Les Ehringer, vice president of Allegheny Commuter, said Saturday Stillman resigned as a company mechanic just hours before he jumped from one of the airline's commuter flights from Harrisburg International Airport to Washington at about 1:30 p.m. EDT Friday.
Stillman, hired in September 1982, cited 'personal reasons' for his resignation, Ehringer said.
'To my knowledge he wasn't on probation,' he said. 'I don't know what the personal reasons were -- whether they were personal reasons at work or personal reasons at home.'
Stillman, married and the father of a young child, was dressed in a green suit and sneakers when he jumped. One sneaker was found jammed in the emergency door but police said no other clothing was found in the plane or in the woods.
Ehringer said Stillman 'did not appear to be frustrated or nervous about anything' when he walked to the back of the 30-passenger twin-engine turbo prop, opened the emergency door and jumped.
None of the other 26 passengers or three crew members aboard the aircraft were endangered, he said. The aircraft normally flies at 8,000 feet and was not pressurized because of the low altitude.
