Medical evacuation aircraft with six aboard disappears off Nantucket
A Gulfstream G-100 medical flight en route from Bermuda to Boston lost contact and is being searched for by U.S. authorities after a sudden altitude loss.
U.S. officials launched a search Saturday for a Gulfstream G-100 medical aircraft that vanished off the coast of Nantucket while carrying six people. The Federal Aviation Administration said contact was lost just after 1:00 a.m. local time, prompting a search-and-rescue alert. The plane had departed Bermuda's L.F. Wade International Airport at 11:40 p.m. the previous night, bound for Boston's Logan International Airport, with an estimated arrival at 1:30 a.m.
The aircraft, operated by Latitude Air Ambulances, was carrying two pilots, two Canadian medical staff, a patient and a relative. Flight tracking data showed the plane dropped sharply from about 7,300 metres (24,000 ft) to 3,300 metres (11,000 ft) before communications ceased. Live air-traffic recordings captured a controller asking whether the crew were declaring an emergency, indicating a loss of radio contact.
The U.S. Coast Guard’s Northeast District confirmed an air and water search is under way in the area. Latitude Air Ambulances said the flight had been dispatched to Bermuda to pick up the patient and accompanying family member.