Air Ambulance Jet With Six Aboard Vanishes Off Nantucket After Pilot Reports Electrical Failure

A medical evacuation jet carrying six people disappeared off the coast of Nantucket early Saturday morning after the pilot reported an electrical failure and struggled to communicate with air traffic control, according to the Federal Aviation Administration and the U.S. Coast Guard.

The Gulfstream G-100, tail number CGRJP, departed Bermuda's L.F. Wade International Airport at about 11:41 p.m. Friday, Eastern time, bound for Boston Logan International Airport, according to Bermuda airport operator Skyport and FlightAware data cited by CBS News. The flight was expected to take roughly an hour and 45 minutes.

The jet cruised at about 24,000 feet for most of the trip. Then, according to FlightAware data reported by CNN and the Boston Globe, it plunged roughly 13,000 feet in about three minutes starting around 1:04 a.m. Breitbart, citing the New York Post, put the drop at 23,500 feet to 11,000 feet over the same window, with a final radar ping around 1:23 a.m.

Air traffic control audio obtained by the Boston Globe and ABC News captured the final exchanges. "You're coming in blind? Is that what you said?" a controller asked the pilot, according to a recording captured by LiveATC.net. "Are you declaring an emergency, or no?" The controller said he struggled to hear the pilot's response and later confirmed an emergency had been declared, but could not reestablish contact. A nearby Ethiopian Airlines jet was asked to try to reach the aircraft on radio; it could not.

At 1:06 a.m., with the plane about 80 miles south of Nantucket, a Logan Airport dispatcher told ground crews the jet had lost "radio and radar" and was due to land in 15 minutes, according to radio transmissions obtained by the Boston Globe. It never arrived. The FAA issued a Search and Rescue Alert Notice for the Gulfstream G-100 at 1:20 a.m., an FAA spokesperson confirmed to multiple outlets including the Guardian and Nantucket Current.

The Massachusetts Port Authority, which runs Logan, said the aircraft "did not arrive as scheduled" and that "our thoughts are with those on board and their loved ones as the search continues."

Who was on board

The plane is registered to Latitude Air Ambulance, a medical transport company based in Ontario, Canada, and has been under that registration since 2018, according to Canadian government records cited by CNN. The aircraft itself was built in 1996.

Four of the six people aboard were Canadian, according to Canada's Minister of Transport Steven MacKinnon. The Boston Globe reported those four were the flight crew: two pilots and two medical staff. The remaining two, a patient and a family member, were Bermudian nationals, the Globe reported, citing Latitude's Director of Flight Operations, Clarence Togeretz. ABC News and the Guardian reported, citing a source with knowledge of the investigation, that no Americans were aboard.

"We always get rather concerned when our crew doesn't report to us in a timely manner," Togeretz told NBC News. "But I will say that again, optimistically and positively, that doesn't mean that the worst has happened." He told NBC the company has an emergency response plan "for anything that might occur to any of our missions."

Togeretz told CNN's partner CBC that the crew had flown to Bermuda to pick up a patient and a relative for a medical repatriation flight, and that Latitude lost contact with the plane around 1:30 a.m. before notifying the Coast Guard.

The search

The Coast Guard Northeast District said air and surface crews launched almost immediately. Assets involved include an HC-144 Ocean Sentry and HC-130 Hercules fixed-wing aircraft, an MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter, the Sentinel-class cutter William Sparling, and a 47-foot motor lifeboat launched from Coast Guard Station Brant Point on Nantucket, according to CBS News and Nantucket Current.

On shore, Nantucket Police and the Nantucket Harbormaster's office searched the island's south shore by truck and ATV. "Our crews will respond to inshore incidents so the Coast Guard can focus their efforts offshore," Harbormaster Sheila Lucey told Nantucket Current.

That detail has not been corroborated by other named sources and remains attributed solely to that unnamed source with knowledge of the investigation.

Bermuda Premier David Burt said his government has been in contact with the families of those aboard and with U.S. search authorities. "We are praying that all six people will be found safe," Burt said in a statement. MacKinnon echoed that sentiment, saying Canadian officials are "closely monitoring the situation."

As of Saturday afternoon, ABC News reported no updates from the search since roughly 1:15 p.m. No wreckage, debris field or survivors had been publicly confirmed by the Coast Guard, and the cause of the aircraft's rapid descent remains unknown pending any recovery effort or formal investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board or Transport Canada.