Search efforts continue off Nantucket

Contact was lost early Saturday local time with the Gulfstream G-100 aircraft, which was being used as a medical plane. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said the aircraft went missing en route to Boston, Massachusetts, and that a search-and-rescue alert was issued shortly after 1 a.m.

The U.S. Coast Guard's Northeast District said the air and sea search is concentrated off Nantucket Island, on the Massachusetts coast. The aircraft had departed Bermuda's L.F. Wade International Airport at 11:40 p.m. local time and was scheduled to land at Boston Logan International Airport at 1:30 a.m.

Who was on board?

According to the tail number shared by the Coast Guard, the plane belonged to Latitude Air Ambulances, a company that carries out international patient transfers. The company's director of flight operations, Clarence Togeretz, said the aircraft was carrying two pilots and two medical crew members, along with a patient picked up in Bermuda and a companion traveling with that person.

Togeretz said the patient and companion were not Canadian. That confirmed that six people were on board in total.

Emergency signs appeared in the final minutes

Flight tracking data showed the aircraft was losing altitude before communications were cut off. According to FlightAware records, the plane dropped rapidly from about 7,300 meters to 3,300 meters before disappearing from the tracking screen.

Boston Globe, citing LiveATC.net recordings, reported that radio communication between air traffic control and the pilot was difficult. The controller could not clearly hear whether the pilot had declared an emergency; it was later confirmed that an emergency had been reported.

First warning was an electrical failure

  • A dispatcher with a local fire department asked crews just after 1 a.m. to prepare to meet an aircraft.
  • The first report said the plane had a electrical failure.
  • Later, the same dispatch said radio and radar contact with the aircraft had both been lost.

U.S. officials are continuing the search for the missing plane and the six people on board. The cause of the incident will become clear after search and investigation results are reviewed.