The U.S. Coast Guard on Sunday suspended its search off the Massachusetts coast for six people aboard an air ambulance that disappeared during a flight from Bermuda to Boston, The Associated Press reported.
Four Canadians and two people from Bermuda were on the Gulfstream G100.
“Suspending a search is not an easy decision,” Rear Adm. Matthew Lake, commander of the Coast Guard’s northeast district, said. “We express our deepest condolences to the families and loved ones affected by the tragedy.”
The Federal Aviation Administration told the Coast Guard at 2 a.m. Saturday that it had lost contact with the jet.
Searchers later found a “debris field” off Nantucket, in water 80 to 90 feet deep.
The Canadian-registered jet carried four crew members and two passengers when it left Bermuda’s L.F. Wade International Airport, according to the airport’s operator, Skyport.
Air traffic control audio posted by LiveATC.net indicates the pilot reported electrical problems and declared an emergency, and a controller asked whether the plane was “coming in blind.”
Preliminary FlightRadar24 data show a sharp descent from around 24,000 feet to around 10,000 feet.
Mary Schiavo, an aviation attorney and former Transportation Department inspector general, said the jet may have lost its navigational instruments as a storm crossed its path.
Click here to read the full story on KSL.com (Associated Press)
