Authorities on Sunday suspended the search off the Massachusetts coast for six people on an air ambulance that disappeared during a flight from Bermuda to Boston.
The U.S. Coast Guard said authorities searched more than 4,400 miles (7,081 kilometers) over a span of 66 hours for the four Canadians and two people from Bermuda who were on board.
“Suspending a search is not an easy decision,” Rear Adm. Matthew Lake, commander of the Coast Guard’s northeast district, said in a statement. “We express our deepest condolences to the families and loved ones affected by the tragedy and our gratitude for our partner agencies who helped support search efforts.”
The Federal Aviation Administration contacted the Coast Guard at 2 a.m. Saturday that it had lost contact with the Gulfstream G100 carrying six people over the Atlantic Ocean. Searchers later Saturday found a “debris field” off the coast of Nantucket, Lake had said at a news conference on Sunday.
Coast Guard crews along with the New York National Guard’s Air Rescue Wing and Massachusetts authorities searched a vast area using fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters, boats and cutters.
The depth of the water around the debris field was 80 to 90 feet (about 24 to 27 meters).
The Canadian-registered air ambulance jet had four crew members and two passengers aboard when it departed Bermuda’s L.F. Wade International Airport for the nighttime flight to Massachusetts, according to a statement from the Bermuda airport’s operator, Skyport.
Air traffic audio indicates that the plane may have been “coming in blind” when a storm loomed ahead shortly before it vanished.
The pilot reported electrical problems and declared an emergency as the jet approached the coast, according to air traffic control audio posted by LiveATC.net. “Roger, you said you’re coming in blind. Is that what you said?” a controller can be heard asking the pilot.
That makes Mary Schiavo, who is a former Inspector General of the Transportation Department, think the plane may have lost its navigational instruments just as a storm moved across its path on radar. The plane also descended sharply from its cruising altitude of around 24,000 feet to around 10,000 feet, according to preliminary data from flight tracking site FlightRadar24.
“Something bad happened with this big drop, and they flew into this big storm. It’s a terrible place to have a loss of your instruments and be flying blind,” said Schiavo, who is an aviation attorney. “It’s very easy to get disoriented and not know if you’re turning, climbing, descending, etc.”
AP Transportation Writer Josh Funk, Associated Press writer Amy Taxin and Associated Press reporter Laura Turbay in Little Rock, Arkansas, a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative, contributed to this report.
Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.