US Coast Guard crews have recovered debris believed to belong to a Canadian-registered air ambulance that vanished early Saturday over the Atlantic, as a major search continues for the six people who were on board.
The Gulfstream G100, operated by Ontario-based Latitude Air Ambulance, disappeared during an overnight flight from Bermuda to Boston. The Federal Aviation Administration alerted the Coast Guard at around 2 a.m. local time after losing contact with the aircraft, and search crews later located a confirmed debris field off the coast of Nantucket, Massachusetts.
Four Canadian nationals and two Bermudian nationals were aboard — two pilots, two medical staff, a patient, and a family member travelling as an escort. Next of kin have been notified.
A sudden plunge from the sky
Flight tracking data shows the jet was cruising at about 24,000 feet when it dropped roughly 13,000 feet in around two minutes, shortly before controllers lost contact. Air traffic control audio posted by LiveATC.net captured the controller asking the pilot, “Roger, you said you’re coming in blind. Is that what you said?”
The pilot had declared an emergency moments before the plane vanished. Aviation experts say the aircraft appears to have suffered serious electrical problems at a moment when a storm was crossing its path, leaving the crew without working instruments in a dangerous position.
Search on sea and seabed
By Sunday, Coast Guard crews together with the New York National Guard and Massachusetts authorities had scoured more than 2,800 square miles of ocean using aircraft, helicopters and cutters. The Coast Guard said it was deploying sonar to comb the seabed, where the water around the debris field is roughly 80 to 90 feet deep.
“We’ll continue to search and saturate the area until we’re at the point where we are confident that if there were any survivors remaining on the surface of the water, we would have found them,” Coast Guard Captain John McTamney said.
Canada’s Transport Minister Steven MacKinnon said four Canadians were on the flight and that officials were “closely monitoring the situation.” Bermuda’s premier, David Burt, said the government was in contact with US authorities and the passengers’ families. Latitude Air Ambulance, which operates a fleet of ten medical evacuation aircraft, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Source: Al Jazeera