The U.S. Coast Guard has searched roughly 2,840 square miles (roughly 7,355 square kilometres) for six people aboard an Ontario-based air ambulance that went missing over the Atlantic, as crews continue to search the area where debris was found over the weekend.
The Gulfstream G100, operated by Hamilton, Ont.-based Latitude Air Ambulance, was carrying four Canadians and two Bermuda nationals when it disappeared early Saturday while flying from Bermuda to Boston.
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Speaking to reporters Sunday, Rear-Adm. Matthew W. Lake said that the Coast Guard had been searching for about 53 hours and confirmed that the debris field has been determined to be associated with the aircraft.
“Our search remains ongoing,” Lake said.
The Coast Guard is using fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters, boats and cutters in the search, working with the New York National Guard’s Air Rescue Wing and Massachusetts authorities.
Search continues
Lake described the search area as “large and demanding,” saying crews will continue to evaluate all available information as the operation progresses.
“The area around the debris field is approximately 80 to 90 feet,” he said.
The Coast Guard was first notified by the Federal Aviation Administration at about 2 a.m. Saturday that it had lost contact with the Gulfstream G100, which had six people on board.
Crews later located the debris field off the coast of Nantucket, Mass., where they had been searching.
Lake said next of kin have continued to receive updates on the progress of the search.
“Our priority is to locate the six personnel on that aircraft,” he said. “My thoughts and those of every Coast Guard crew member are with the families on that aircraft,” he added.
Weather has not been a factor in the search efforts, added Coast Guard Capt. John McTamney, chief of response for the northeast district.
“We’ll continue to search and saturate the area until we’re at the point where we are confident that if there were any survivors remaining on the surface of the water, we would have found them,” he said.
The aircraft, which has the tail number C-GRJP, departed Bermuda’s L.F. Wade International Airport at 12:41 a.m. Saturday and was headed for Boston Logan International Airport.
The flight was carrying a patient and a family member, who were Bermuda nationals, along with two pilots and two medical staff, according to Latitude Air Ambulance’s operations manager Clarence Togeretz.
Togeretz previously said the company lost contact with the aircraft around 1:30 a.m. as it approached Boston and contacted the U.S. Coast Guard after the aircraft failed to arrive.
Air traffic control audio captured by LiveATC.net indicated the pilot declared an emergency before contact was lost.
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.
Flight tracking data showed the aircraft dropped from 24,000 feet to 11,000 feet in about two minutes before levelling off and disappearing from the tracking data.
“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.”
Latitude Air Ambulance has said this is the first time it has lost contact with one of its aircraft.
The Coast Guard said it will continue its search and provide additional information as the investigation develops.
Transport Canada was closely monitoring and working with authorities on search and rescue efforts, the country’s Minister of Transport Steven MacKinnon said on the social platform X.
With files from Bryann Aguilar, Joshua McGinnis, The Associated Press and The Canadian Press.
