The US Coast Guard sent air and sea crews on Saturday to search for an air ambulance carrying six people after contact was lost during an overnight flight from Bermuda to Boston. The search for the Gulfstream G100 aircraft focused on waters off Nantucket, Massachusetts.
Loss of contact and flight path
The Coast Guard said the Federal Aviation Administration notified it that contact with the aircraft had been lost early on Saturday. Audio recordings of air traffic control showed that the pilot's voice was not clearly audible, while an air traffic controller later confirmed that the pilot had been declaring an emergency moments before contact was lost. The aircraft, which was registered in Canada, had departed L.F. Wade International Airport in Bermuda overnight, bound for Massachusetts.
Altitude dropped before contact was lost
It was flying at an altitude of 7,300 metres for most of the journey before descending to about 4,000 metres in roughly two minutes, shortly before air traffic controllers lost contact with it. An audio recording from Boston Logan International Airport was also released, in which an air traffic controller can be heard asking the pilot: “Did you say you’re going to enter without visual reference? Is that what you said?” before contact with the aircraft was lost.
Another recording published by the LiveATC website showed that the pilot's voice was faint and unclear during communications with air traffic control. Clarence Tougretz, a spokesman for Canadian company Latitude Air Ambulance, said contact with the aircraft was lost at about 1:30 a.m. local time.
He added: “There were two pilots, two medical crew members and a patient accompanied by a family member on board,” saying that he had no further information about the rescue efforts. The National Transportation Safety Board said it was working on Saturday morning to gather information about the incident and had no further updates to announce at that time. Canadian Transport Minister Stephen MacKinnon said his ministry was closely monitoring developments in the search for the aircraft.
He said on X that the ministry was coordinating with the relevant authorities in search and rescue efforts, as US air and sea crews continued to take part in the operation off Massachusetts.
