Search Intensifies for Missing Medical Plane Off Nantucket
US authorities found debris from a medical plane missing Boston-bound from Bermuda with six people on board. The Coast Guard is still searching off Nantucket…
BOSTON — The search for a medical plane missing Boston intensified Saturday after US authorities found debris from a Gulfstream G-100 that vanished while flying from Bermuda to Massachusetts with six people on board. The US Coast Guard said it had confirmed a debris field off the coast of Nantucket.
The aircraft lost contact just after 01:00 local time on Saturday, according to the Federal Aviation Administration, as it was heading for Boston Logan International Airport. The Coast Guard said ships, helicopters and planes were being used in the search, which continued overnight off Nantucket, a Massachusetts island south of Cape Cod.
Flight carried four Canadians and two Bermudians
Authorities have notified the next of kin of those on board, the BBC reported. The Coast Guard said the six people included four Canadian nationals and two Bermudian nationals.
According to CBC News, Latitude Air Ambulances director of flight operations Clarence Togeretz said the crew had flown to Bermuda to collect a patient and the patient’s relative. He said the crew included two pilots and two medical staff, both Canadian. The company, which provides international medical flights for patients returning home, was identified by the tail number released by the Coast Guard.
FlightAware data showed the aircraft departed Bermuda’s L.F. Wade International Airport at 23:40 local time, while another account cited by authorities put the departure at 12:41am local time. It was due to land in Boston at 01:30 EDT. The plane was flying at 24,000 feet for much of the trip before dropping 13,000 feet in about two minutes before communications went dark, according to tracking data cited by CNN and the BBC.
Search crews work through the night
The Coast Guard said its search crews found “a debris field that has been confirmed to be associated with the missing aircraft.” One of its cutters was expected to keep searching through the night and into Sunday.
Radio audio posted by LiveATC.net and cited by the Boston Globe pointed to a troubled exchange near the end of the flight. “You’re coming in blind? Is that what you said?” an air traffic controller asked. “Are you declaring an emergency, or no?”
The scale of the search shows how far the emergency spread in minutes. The plane was on a routine medical transfer route, but the loss of contact off Nantucket quickly pulled in federal aviation officials and Coast Guard assets from sea and air.
Canada’s Minister of Transport Steven MacKinnon said in a social media post that four Canadians were on the plane. He added, “We are closely monitoring the situation and are working with the relevant authorities as search and rescue efforts continue.”
The missing Gulfstream was built in 1996 and has been registered to Latitude Air Ambulance since 2018, CNN reported, citing Canadian government records. The company operates four Gulfstream G100 aircraft, along with Learjet 35A, Beech 1900-D and Falcon aircraft, according to CNN.
For families waiting on shore, the hardest part now is the silence. The Coast Guard search continues off Nantucket, and the next update could determine whether crews find survivors or only more wreckage from the missing medical aircraft.
Source: bostonglobe.com
