The U.S. Coast Guard is searching for a Hamilton-based air ambulance carrying six people that went missing off the coast of Nantucket.
The Federal Aviation Administration told Global News in a statement it issued a Search and Rescue Alert for a Gulfstream G-100 around 1:20 a.m. Saturday.
The flight departed from L.F. Wade International Airport in Bermuda and was headed to Boston Logan International Airport, a spokesperson said. It was scheduled to arrive in Boston around 1:30 a.m.
A spokesperson for the Massachusetts Port Authority, which operates Boston Logan International Airport, confirmed to Global News in an email that the aircraft did not arrive as scheduled.
“Our thoughts are with those on board and their loved ones as the search continues,” the spokesperson said.
According to data from Flight Aware, the plane took off around 11:40 p.m. Friday. Data shows the aircraft slowing down as it dropped from 24,000 feet to 11,000 feet around 1:05 a.m. before losing contact.
In a post on social media, the Coast Guard said it had launched air and surface crews in search of the aircraft.
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Authorities are engaging in what is called a pattern search, John Gradek, an aviation expert at McGill University, told Global News.
“These aircraft are typically equipped with a transponder that basically beeps out to the world about location. So I’m not sure whether that transponder got deployed or not,” he said, adding it does not appear authorities have a pinpointed location.
The Nantucket Police Department told Global News in a statement that they were requested to check the Nantucket Memorial Airport and the southern shoreline for the plane but it was not located.
“We have been monitoring the southern shore on ATV with both police and Harbour Master’s Office Staff since sunrise,” a spokesperson said.
The jet is registered to Latitude Air Ambulance, a company based in Hamilton, Ont., according to data from FlightRadar 24.
The company’s website states it operates four Gulfstream G-100 jets, the “longest range dedicated medevac aircraft in North America.”
Gradek said the company has been around for a while, calling it the “premier long distance air ambulance service in North America.”
“They’ve been around a few years, they fly high quality, good maintenance airplanes, and are very reliable,” he added.
Clarence Togeretz, operations manager for Latitude Air Ambulance, told The Canadian Press this is the first time Latitude Air Ambulance has lost contact with one of its planes.
He said the missing aircraft was transporting a patient and their family member, with two pilots and two medical staff on board.
The four medical staff are Canadian and the two passengers are Bermuda nationals, he added.
The Bermuda government said in a post on social media it has been in contact with the families of those on board.
The jet’s previous flight was Friday, travelling from Hamilton to Bermuda.
– With files from The Canadian Press
Bermuda Triangle!
Yet again. Canadians need Americas help as they don’t have a functioning Coast Guard or any military capabilities for S&R. But Elbows Up eh?
Derp derp
With technology we have today every plane should be carrying GPS of some kind..or some kind of locating beacon…
When human beings are involved, one shouldn’t care if the person is Russian, American, etc. It’s just common human decency to help, and politics and pettiness should not enter into it.
@HEC. That was 25 years ago. Now Canadians are anti American and blame all their problems on the USA, but expect help at every turn.
Stars & Strips … I agree with Rui, how could you be so callous … remember after 911 when several thousand Americans were stranded in Canada, put up for several days and became fast friends with their American neighbours … keep up your rhetoric … you are not helping anything in this world.
USA should not help Canada in any matter in my opinion.
Jack Sproule. You are truly a moron.
Even after the terrorist attacks on 9/11 in 2001, there are still no onboard cameras broadcasting back to air traffic control, and we are left trying to stitch these situations together.
I thought Canadians were boycotting USA and going Elbows Up like Clowney
Hope everyone is ok.