United States: Authorities on Sunday suspended the search off the Massachusetts coast for six people aboard an air ambulance that disappeared while flying from Bermuda to Boston.
The US Coast Guard said authorities searched more than 4,400 miles (7,081 kilometres) over 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 am Saturday after losing contact with the Gulfstream G100 carrying six people over the Atlantic Ocean. Searchers later found a “debris field” off the coast of Nantucket, Lake 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.
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The water around the debris field was 80 to 90 feet (about 24 to 27 metres) deep.
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 airport’s operator, Skyport.
Air traffic audio indicates that the plane may have been “coming in blind” when a storm appeared 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.
Mary Schiavo, a former Inspector General of the Transportation Department, said the plane may have lost its navigational instruments just as a storm moved across its path on radar. The aircraft 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.”
