Coast Guard Suspends Search for Medical Jet That Vanished Off Nantucket; Six Presumed Dead

BOSTON — The U.S. Coast Guard suspended its search on Sunday for a medical transport jet that vanished over the Atlantic off Nantucket, Massachusetts, with six people aboard, after crews found debris from the aircraft and spent roughly 66 hours scouring thousands of miles of ocean without finding survivors.

The Gulfstream G100, operated by the Canadian company Latitude Air Ambulance, was flying from Bermuda to Boston Logan International Airport when the Federal Aviation Administration lost contact with it early Saturday, according to the Coast Guard’s Northeast District. The FAA notified the Coast Guard at approximately 2 a.m. Saturday that contact had been lost.

Six people were on board: four Canadian nationals and two citizens of Bermuda. Next of kin have been notified, the Coast Guard said.

“Suspending a search is not an easy decision,” Rear Adm. Matthew Lake, commander of the Coast Guard’s Northeast District, said in a statement on Sunday. “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.”

A debris field, and a flight that fell from the sky

According to Reuters, the Coast Guard found debris late on Saturday from the Gulfstream jet, and searchers spent Sunday working the area with aircraft and vessels on the water. The aircraft had departed Bermuda at 12:41 a.m. on Saturday, according to data from the flight tracking website FlightAware cited by Reuters. CNN reported that FlightAware data showed the plane flying at 24,000 feet for more than an hour before it plunged 13,000 feet over two minutes.

Local television station Boston 25 posted an audio clip of a Logan air traffic controller asking the Gulfstream pilot whether he was declaring an emergency, according to Reuters. There was no response from the pilot.

Latitude Air Ambulance said late Sunday that the six people missing are presumed dead. “Given the information shared by authorities and the conclusion of the search-and-rescue phase, we must now face the heartbreaking reality that the four members of our Latitude team, our patient and the patient’s family escort, who were aboard Heartbeat 104, are presumed to have died,” the company said in a statement, according to Reuters.

Thousands of miles searched, cause unknown

Coast Guard and partner agency crews searched 4,445 miles over approximately 66 hours, according to the service. The effort drew on an HC-144 Ocean Sentry airplane crew, an HC-130 Hercules crew and an MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter crew from Coast Guard Air Station Cape Cod; 47-foot Motor Lifeboat crews from Coast Guard Station Brant Point; the crew of the cutter William Sparling, a Boston-based Fast Response Cutter; and two HH-60 helicopter crews and an HC-130 aircraft from the New York Air National Guard’s 106th Rescue Wing.

Latitude said it would work with the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board, the Transportation Safety Board of Canada and other authorities on recovery efforts and the investigation into why the plane went down, according to Reuters. The Coast Guard said a future investigation into the cause of the incident will be coordinated by the appropriate investigative authorities.

Reporting based on coverage by the U.S. Coast Guard, Reuters and CNN.