The US Coast Guard said on Saturday that search crews had located a debris field confirmed to be from an air ambulance jet that went missing over the Atlantic with six people on board. The wreckage was found off Nantucket, an island south of Cape Cod in Massachusetts, and the search for survivors continued overnight into Sunday, with a cutter, helicopters and planes involved.
The Canadian-registered Gulfstream G100 was flying from Bermuda, a British territory in the Atlantic, to Boston when the Federal Aviation Administration lost contact with it in the early hours of Saturday. According to the airport operator Skyport, it took off from Bermuda's L.F. Wade International Airport late at night and was due to land at Boston's Logan International shortly after 01:30 local time. Four of those aboard were Canadian and two were Bermudian, the Coast Guard said, and next of kin have been notified.
The aircraft belongs to Latitude Air Ambulance, an Ontario-based company that flies patients home internationally. Its director of flight operations, Clarence Togeretz, told CBC News the crew included two pilots and two medical staff, all Canadian. They had flown to Bermuda to collect a patient and a relative, who are not Canadian. Canada's Transport Minister Steven MacKinnon said his government was monitoring the situation and working with the authorities, while Bermuda's Premier David Burt said the government was in touch with US officials and the families.
Flight-tracking data show the jet cruised at about 24,000 feet (7,300 metres) before dropping steeply in a matter of minutes, shortly before contact was lost. Air traffic control audio posted by LiveATC.net captures a controller asking the pilot, "You said you're coming in blind. Is that what you said?" The pilot's reply was inaudible, but the controller later confirmed an emergency had been declared. A local fire dispatcher reportedly asked crews to prepare for a plane with an "electrical issue" that had lost radio and radar.
The cause remains unknown. Mary Schiavo, a former Transportation Department inspector general and aviation attorney, suggested the plane may have lost its navigation instruments just as a storm crossed its path, a situation in which pilots can quickly become disoriented. That is an outside expert's interpretation, not an official finding. The National Transportation Safety Board, the US body that investigates air accidents, said it was gathering information but had not said whether it would open an investigation.
The Coast Guard said it would give a further update on Sunday morning. For now, the focus remains on the search for the six people aboard, as families in Canada and Bermuda wait for news.