Six presumed dead after medical plane vanishes off Nantucket

Aircraft dropped from 7,300 to 3,300 meters before contact was lost

Six people aboard a medical transport aircraft that went missing early Saturday while traveling from Bermuda to Boston are presumed dead, the flight’s operator said Sunday evening. The United States Coast Guard ended its search for survivors off the coast of Nantucket, a Massachusetts island, after a debris field confirmed to be from the aircraft was located Saturday evening.

The plane, a Gulfstream G-100 designated Heartbeat 104, was operated by Latitude Air Ambulance, a Canadian company that provides international medical flights for patients returning home. Four of those aboard were Canadian — two pilots and two medical staff who had flown to Bermuda to collect a patient — and two were Bermudian nationals, Latitude director of flight operations Clarence Togeretz told CBC News.

The Federal Aviation Administration lost contact with the plane just after 01:00 local time (05:00 GMT) on Saturday, about half an hour before it was scheduled to land at Boston’s Logan International Airport. The aircraft had departed L.F. Wade International Airport in Bermuda at 23:40 local time Friday, according to flight data from FlightAware.

In a statement Sunday evening, Latitude Air Ambulance said it 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’s president, Peter Byl, said Latitude’s “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.”

FlightAware tracking data shows the aircraft significantly dropped in altitude before communications went dark — from around 7,300 meters (24,000 feet) to 3,300 meters (11,000 feet), according to the data reviewed by BBC News.

Radio transmissions reviewed by The Boston Globe from LiveATC.net captured the controller asking the pilot whether the aircraft was declaring an emergency after communications became difficult to hear. “You’re coming in blind? Is that what you said?” the air traffic controller asked. “Are you declaring an emergency, or no?” The pilot’s response was inaudible, the Globe reported. The controller later confirmed the pilot had declared an emergency.

An area fire dispatcher asked emergency crews shortly after 01:00 EDT to prepare to meet a plane with an “electrical issue,” according to transmissions cited by the Globe. The dispatcher later said “the aircraft has lost radio and radar.”

On Saturday evening, authorities located a debris field confirmed to be from the aircraft. On Sunday evening, the Coast Guard announced it was ending the search for survivors, and Latitude Air Ambulance followed with its statement presuming the deaths.

In its statement, the company said “determining the circumstances and cause of an aviation accident is a careful and methodical process, and we will not speculate about what occurred.” Latitude pledged to “continue to cooperate with relevant authorities during ongoing recovery efforts and investigations.”