Peter Byl said six people aboard the Missing airplane Heartbeat 104 are presumed dead after the aircraft went missing on a medical transport flight from Bermuda to Boston. The United States Coast Guard ended its search for survivors on Sunday evening after debris from the Gulfstream G-100 was found off Nantucket.
Heartbeat 104 from Bermuda
Latitude Air Ambulance said the four members of its team, the patient and the patient's family escort aboard Heartbeat 104 are presumed to have died. Byl said, "This is an unimaginable loss for our Latitude family and for everyone who loved the six people aboard Heartbeat 104".
He added, "Our focus now is on supporting their families, supporting our people and assisting the authorities. We will honour our colleagues by remembering the care, professionalism, and commitment they brought to their work every day." The aircraft left Bermuda's L.F. Wade International Airport at 23:40 local time on Friday night and was due at Boston's Logan International at 01:30 EDT on Saturday.
United States Coast Guard search
The Federal Aviation Administration lost contact with the plane just after 01:00 local time on Saturday. Authorities later found a debris field off the coast of Nantucket on Saturday evening, and the Coast Guard ended the search for survivors the next evening.
FlightAware's tracker showed the aircraft dropped from around 7,300m to 3,300m before communications went dark. Radio transmissions reported by the Boston Globe showed the pilot and air traffic controller struggling to hear each other, and the controller later confirmed the pilot had declared an emergency.
Latitude Air Ambulance team
The aircraft carried four Canadian nationals and two Bermudian nationals. Two pilots and two medical staff, both Canadian, had flown to Bermuda to collect a patient and the patient's relative, and the company said its people now face the task of supporting those families while authorities continue their review of what caused the loss of contact.
