Searchers found debris after a coast guard missing plane vanished south of Nantucket early Saturday on an 800-mile flight from Bermuda to Boston. The US Coast Guard launched boats, planes, and helicopters, and six people on board were still unaccounted for on Saturday night.
The Gulfstream G100 left L. F. Wade International Airport in Bermuda at 11:41 p.m. on Friday. The aircraft was carrying a patient, a family member, and a four-person crew.
David Burt on the six aboard
David Burt said, “We are praying that all six people will be found safe,” while families were being kept in touch with authorities. The plane was a medical transport flight, and the people aboard included Bermudian nationals and Canadian citizens.
Air traffic control records show the jet was already having trouble before it vanished. At about 12:46 a.m., a controller asked, “You’re coming in blind? Is that what you said?” and “Are you declaring an emergency, or no?”
FlightAware and Logan International Airport
As the jet approached Nantucket, the pilot reported electrical failures, then declared an emergency while descending toward the Atlantic Ocean. FlightAware data show the plane dropped 13,000 feet within three minutes, and at 1:06 a.m. it was about 80 miles south of Nantucket, when a dispatcher at Logan International Airport directed crews to stage on the runway for the plane.
By about 1 a.m., the aircraft had disappeared from radar entirely. The dispatcher said the plane was due to land in 15 minutes and had lost radio and radar, leaving search crews to work from debris and a narrowing track over the Atlantic Ocean.
