Two Massachusetts men identified as victims of Cape Cod plane crash

By Colin A. Young and Matt Byrne, Globe Correspondents

Brewster police today released the names of the two men killed when their single-engine airplane crashed in shallow water Sunday.

Police said Oulton Hues, 73, of Norwood, and Robert Walker, 68, of East Falmouth died in the crash. The bodies were found near Saint’s Landing. One was found by the Brewster Fire Department near the shore and the other was spotted in the surf by a Coast Guard helicopter pilot.

Communication was lost with the Piper Comanche, which was being used for a training flight, around 10 a.m., after the pilot told air traffic controllers that there had been smoke in the cabin, according to a spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration.

The two were doing hold patterns over Hyannis, and the craft was last verified flying at about 2,000 feet, 10 miles northeast of Hyannis and about a mile off the shoreline, FAA spokesman Jim Peters said yesterday.

Before the crash, the pilot indicated that smoke was filling the cabin, but then told air traffic controllers that it had cleared. Peters said it was the last communication controllers received.

“He wanted to continue to do the hold practices,’’ Peters said. “Shortly after that we lost communication with the aircraft.’’

After the plane disappeared from radar and communication was lost, Coast Guard rescue boats, a helicopter, and a jet converged to search for the plane, eventually spotting wreckage in about 4 feet of water, Coast Guard Petty Officer Connie Terrell said in a phone interview.

According to FAA records, the plane, first airworthy in 1961, was co-owned by Margaret M. Johnston of East Falmouth and Walker. The craft was last registered in June 2010.