Coast Guard Suspends Search For Survivors Of Plane Crash
Jason Graziadei •
The Coast Guard has suspended its search for survivors of a plane crash off Nantucket, one day after locating a debris field from the aircraft in the waters 20 miles south of the island.
The Gulfstream G100 aircraft, which had been traveling from Bermuda to Boston on a medical transport mission before declaring an emergency and losing contact with air traffic controllers, had been carrying six people.
“Suspending a search is not an easy decision,” said Rear Adm. Matthew Lake, Commander of the U.S. Coast Guard's Northeast District. “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.”
Since the Coast Guard began searching at 2 a.m. Saturday morning, its aircraft and vessels scoured 4,445 miles of the Atlantic Ocean. By Saturday night, the federal agency had confirmed a debris field south of Nantucket was linked to the missing aircraft.
While wreckage from the plane has been recovered, the four Canadian crew members and two Bermudian nationals were not found. On Monday, the Bermuda Police Service confirmed the identifies of the two passengers as Marilyn Lavonne Bean, 66, and her son, Sergio Wayne Lottimore.
The aircraft was registered to Latitude Air Ambulance, a company based in Ontario, Canada, which provides transfers to and from healthcare facilities.
"This is an unimaginable loss for our Latitude family and for everyone who loved the six people aboard Heartbeat 104," said Peter Byl, President of Latitude Air Ambulance, referring to the call sign of the aircraft. "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 debris field was located 20 miles south of the island, where the water depth is 80 to 90 feet. While investigators have recovered pieces of the aircraft, they have not yet found the black box that records flight data.
"We don't have the exact number of items we've recovered so far," Lt. Commander Kastriot Kastrati said. "Because of the amount of debris, it's difficult to get into the details of what's there."
The massive search conducted south of the island on Saturday included crews from Station Brant Point, who were seen off Surfside Beach early Saturday afternoon and were at sea most of the day.
"This is a large and demanding search area," Rear Admiral Lake said during a press conference in Boston Sunday morning.
The Coast Guard is now working with Massachusetts authorities to get vessels with sonar capabilities to the search area to do detection on the sea floor, Lake added.
The situation began when the FAA issued a search and rescue alert notice for the Gulfstream G-100 around 1:20 a.m. Saturday morning, an FAA spokesperson told the Current. The flight departed from L.F. Wade International Airport in Bermuda and was headed to Boston Logan International Airport.
The FAA said on Sunday that there were no further updates on its investigation into the crash.
There were numerous Coast Guard stations and and other agencies that deployed assets to assist the search, including:
- An HC-144 Ocean Sentry airplane crew from Coast Guard Air Station Cape Cod
- An HC-130 Hercules crew from Coast Guard Air Station Cape Cod
- 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 Coast Guard Cutter William Sparling, a Boston-based Fast Response Cutter
- Two HH-60 helicopter crews from the New York Air National Guard’s 106th Rescue Wing
- An HC-130 aircraft from the New York Air National Guard’s 106th Rescue Wing
On land, Nantucket Police and Nantucket Harbormaster personnel were searching for the aircraft along the south shore, but have not found any debris from the crash.
"Both police and harbor master staff were on the beach on ATV’s at 8:00 a.m.," Nantucket Police Department Lt. Angus MacVicar told the Current Sunday morning. "We will continue to monitor the southern shoreline throughout the day."
As the search continued into Saturday afternoon, two of the Coast Guard aircraft broke off from their grid pattern and started circling over an area approximately 20 miles south of Nantucket until sunset.
Later Saturday night, two U.S. Air Force helicopters were on radar flying a grid pattern even farther south.
What caused the apparent crash?
Flight data 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. According to Nantucket Memorial Airport, the aircraft declared an emergency before losing contact.
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:
