Henry Chandler Horner was 69 years old when he became one of the people at the center of a tragic aviation-related missing person case connected to the waters off Kennebunkport, Maine. Public missing-person listings identify him as a White/Caucasian male, about 5 feet 8 inches tall, weighing approximately 160 to 180 pounds, with white hair and blue eyes.
He was last seen on August 18, 2000, in connection with Kennebunkport, Maine, after boarding a small flight that had departed Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and was headed toward Nova Scotia. NamUs lists the case as Missing Person / NamUs #MP53597, and public summaries tied to the case describe Henry as a passenger on a small chartered flight that never completed its trip.
The flight involved a Piper PA-32R-301, registration N411JL, operating from Portsmouth, New Hampshire, toward Liverpool, Nova Scotia. According to the National Transportation Safety Board accident record, the aircraft was in cruise flight at about 9,000 feet over the ocean when a loud bang came from the engine compartment and oil covered the windshield. The pilot reported that the engine produced only partial power before the engine and propeller stopped, leaving no safe landing area except the water below. The airplane was then ditched in the Atlantic Ocean near Kennebunkport during daylight conditions. The NTSB later found that the accident involved the fracture of the number 4 connecting rod for undetermined reasons, resulting in a loss of engine power, with the forced ocean ditching listed as a factor.
News coverage published the next day reported that the small plane carried five people and crashed into the ocean off the Maine coast. Three people survived with injuries: two passengers were treated at the Kennebunkport fire station, and a third person was transported by Coast Guard helicopter to a hospital. The same report said that two people were missing after the crash and that the survivors were picked up by a sailboat in the area. The crash was described as occurring roughly three miles southeast of Kennebunkport at about 3:45 p.m., a sudden emergency that turned an ordinary flight into a desperate rescue scene on open water.
The official aviation record reflects the severity of the event: among the five people aboard, the accident resulted in two fatal injuries, two minor injuries, and one serious injury. The aircraft sustained substantial damage, and the NTSB investigation documented serious internal engine damage, including an exposed and fractured camshaft and damage involving the connecting rods. These technical findings help explain how quickly the flight deteriorated after the initial engine failure, but they do not lessen the human reality of what happened: Henry Horner was a passenger on a flight that left Portsmouth for Nova Scotia and ended in the ocean off Maine, leaving his loved ones with grief, uncertainty, and an official missing person record connected to the crash.
One personal detail preserved in public case information is the clothing-and-accessory evidence associated with Henry’s case: a brown moccasin-type left shoe was noted as found. That small detail stands out because it represents one of the few tangible traces connected to him in the public record. His case was handled by the Maine State Police, and online missing-person listings continue to associate him with Kennebunkport and the August 18, 2000 crash. In overview, Henry Chandler Horner’s case began with a planned flight from New Hampshire toward Nova Scotia, became an emergency when the aircraft suffered catastrophic engine trouble over the Atlantic, and ended with a forced ditching off the Maine coast in which survivors were rescued but Henry remained the subject of a missing-person case tied to one of the two fatal outcomes recorded from the accident.Last Seen: Aug 18, 2000
