Searchers found debris after a medical plane missing near Boston vanished south of Nantucket early Saturday morning, turning a search over the Atlantic Ocean into a recovery effort. The Gulfstream G100 had left Bermuda late Friday with six people aboard, including a patient and a family member.
David Burt, the Bermuda Premier, said, “We are praying that all six people will be found safe.”
FlightAware shows rapid descent
The plane took off from L. F. Wade International Airport in Bermuda at 11:41 p.m. Friday for the 800-mile flight to Boston. FlightAware data showed the aircraft dropped 13,000 feet within three minutes around 1:04 a.m., after the pilot reported electrical failures as the jet approached Nantucket.
At about 12:46 a.m., an air traffic controller asked, “You’re coming in blind? Is that what you said?” The controller then asked, “Are you declaring an emergency, or no?” and later said, “You’re coming in a little weak so I didn’t hear what your response was, if you were declaring an emergency or not.”
Coast Guard search off Nantucket
The plane disappeared from radar around 1 a.m., and at 1:06 a.m. it was about 80 miles south of Nantucket. A dispatcher at Logan International Airport told crews to stage on the runway because the flight was due to land in 15 minutes and had lost radio and radar.
Coast Guard boats, planes, and helicopters launched the search off Nantucket early Saturday. The six people on board were still unaccounted for Saturday night, including the patient, the family member, and the four-person crew.
The aircraft’s path left searchers with a narrow window: a reported emergency, a rapid drop, and then silence before the debris was found. What remains to be answered is what caused the electrical failures and the disappearance south of Nantucket.
