Gulf oil spill recovery exec dead in crash

A spokeswoman for energy giant BP says an executive helping to guide recovery from the Gulf of Mexico oil spill died with two others when a small plane crashed in waters off the Florida Panhandle.

BP spokeswoman Hejdi Feick said Wednesday that 58-year-old James Patrick Black was among the dead. He was the director of operations for BP's Gulf Coast Restoration Organization, the business unit put together for recovery from April's Deepwater Horizon rig explosion and massive oil spill capped last July.

Investigators also said a former Texas solicitor general, 47-year-old Gregory Scott Coleman, and Coleman's 63-year-old mother-in-law, Charlene Black Miller, also died in the Piper Malibu crash Tuesday night in waters near Destin's airport.