Canadian Team Headed To Massachusetts To Investigate Plane Crash Off Nantucket

A team of investigators from Canada is headed to Massachusetts this week to gather more information about the plane crash off Nantucket last Saturday that claimed the lives of six people.

The Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) said it was deploying its team to support the ongoing search and recovery efforts, and gather more information about the crash of the Latitude Air Ambulance Gulfstream G100 aircraft.

Since the plane was Canadian and the crash occurred in international waters 20 miles south of Nantucket, the TSB said it would be leading the investigation "pursuant to international agreements."

The aircraft had been traveling from Bermuda to Boston on a medical transport mission before the pilot declared an emergency and lost contact with air traffic controllers.

A TSB spokesperson told The Royal Gazette, of Bermuda, that its team would be seeking to recover the plane's black box, which would provide investigators with data that could reveal the cause of the crash.

“While it is possible to investigate the occurrence without the black box, those recorders contain a lot of information that would aid in the conduct of the investigation," a TSB spokesperson told the Gazette. “Once the aircraft has been recovered, additional investigators may be required to help examine the recovered material..Some pieces may be sent to the TSB engineering laboratory in Ottawa for additional analysis.”

Earlier this week, the U.S. Coast Guard confirmed the identities of the six people who were on board the plane when it crashed into the ocean south of Nantucket. They include a mother and her son, both from Bermuda, and a crew of four air ambulance personnel from Canada.

The two Bermudian nationals were identified as Marilyn Lavonne Bean, 66, and her son, Sergio Wayne Lottimore, 41. The four Canadian crew members on the plane were employees of Latitude Air Ambulance, an Ontario-based company that provides transfers to and from healthcare facilities. The Coast Guard identified them on Monday as Philip Gregory Childerhose, Thomas Henry Farquhar, Sarah Jane Paton, and Jolene Beth Weir.

Flight data captured by online tracking apps showed the air ambulance cruising to Boston at 24,000 feet before dropping at least 9,000 feet over two minutes as it approached Nantucket from the south. It then leveled off before disappearing.

Some of its transmissions with air traffic controllers were captured by LiveATC.net and indicated there may have been an electrical issue.

On the recording, one of the air traffic controllers asks the pilot of the Gulfstream air ambulance, "You said you're coming in blind?"

The crew from from the jet was communicating with the call sign “Heartbeat 104." Listen to the recordings here: