Six people aboard a medical transport aircraft that disappeared while travelling from Bermuda to Boston are presumed dead, the flight operator, Latitude Air Ambulance, has said.
The United States Coast Guard ended its search for survivors off the coast of Nantucket, Massachusetts, on Sunday evening.
The aircraft, a Gulfstream G-100, lost contact with the Federal Aviation Administration shortly after 1am local time on Saturday.
Authorities later located a debris field believed to be from the missing aircraft.
The plane left Bermuda’s L.F. Wade International Airport at about 11:40pm on Friday and was scheduled to arrive at Boston Logan International Airport at 1:30am.
Four Canadian nationals and two Bermudian nationals were on board.
Latitude Air Ambulance said four members of its team, a patient and the patient’s family escort were presumed dead.
The company said two Canadian pilots and two medical staff had travelled to Bermuda to collect the patient and a relative.
Flight data showed the aircraft dropped sharply from about 24,000 feet to 11,000 feet before communications were lost.
Air traffic control recordings also indicated communication problems shortly before the aircraft disappeared.
A controller reportedly asked whether the pilot was declaring an emergency after struggling to hear the transmission.
The pilot later confirmed the emergency, according to reports.
An emergency dispatcher was subsequently told that the aircraft had lost both radio and radar contact.
Latitude Air Ambulance said it would continue cooperating with authorities during the recovery operation and investigation.
The company said it would not speculate on the cause of the crash, stressing that determining what happened would require a careful investigation.
