(CNN) -- Joe Kistel and Penny Malphrus have never met. But they are connected in a way that may help provide each of them with an answer to the same question: Could strewn pieces of metal recently found partially buried in the sandy ocean floor 20 miles off the coast of St. Augustine, Florida, be what's left of a plane that disappeared without a trace 16 years ago? The story begins on February 17, 1996. That's the day Penny's father, Stewart Dunbar, an experienced pilot, took off on a short solo flight from Swainsboro, Georgia, to Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. Dunbar was returning home after going to show his twin engine propeller-driven Piper Aerostar to a prospective buyer who, as it so happened, failed to show up for the scheduled appointment.
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NEW: Team cancels plans to dive this weekend due to bad weather
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Penny Malphrus has wondered for 16 years what became of her father
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He disappeared over the ocean after sending a distress call from his small plane
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Diver Joe Kistel found sea-floor debris in an area where the plane might have fallen
Stewart Dunbar
Dunbar
Though never certain, the family believes @placeholder, realizing his predicament and unable to control the light transport aircraft, wanted to steer the plane away from land and avoid hurting anyone.
Penny Malphrus
Penny
Penny Malphrus
"I spend countless weeks imagining his fuselage possibly still intact, bouncing around in the ocean like a bottle thrown to sea waiting to be found," @placeholder, now 39, said quietly this week from the same Hilton Head Island home where she grew up.