Debris found from medical plane carrying six off US coast

Boston: Searchers found a “debris field” off the coast of Nantucket, Massachusetts, from an air ambulance carrying six people that vanished over the Atlantic on Saturday while flying from Bermuda to Boston, the US Coast Guard said.

Four Canadians and two Bermudian nationals were aboard. The Coast Guard said the next of kin had been notified as the search continued.

One of its cutters was expected to continue searching the waters overnight and into Sunday.

Flight lost contact over Atlantic

The Federal Aviation Administration reported that the Gulfstream G100 lost contact early Saturday morning, according to the Coast Guard.

Air traffic control audio suggested the aircraft may have been “coming in blind” as a storm moved into its path shortly before it disappeared.

The pilot reported electrical problems and declared an emergency as the aircraft approached the Massachusetts coast, according to audio posted by LiveATC.net.

Aircraft descended sharply

The aircraft descended from a cruising altitude of about 24,000 feet to around 10,000 feet, according to preliminary data from flight-tracking website FlightRadar24.

Mary Schiavo, a former inspector general at the US Department of Transportation and an aviation attorney, said the aircraft may have lost navigational instruments as the storm moved across its path.

She said losing instruments while flying through a storm could leave pilots disoriented and make it difficult to determine whether the aircraft was turning, climbing or descending.

Four crew members, two passengers aboard

The Canadian-registered air ambulance had four crew members and two passengers when it departed Bermuda’s L.F. Wade International Airport for the nighttime flight to Massachusetts, according to Skyport, the airport operator.

Transport Canada was monitoring the situation and working with authorities on search-and-rescue efforts, Transport Minister Steven MacKinnon said on X.

The National Transportation Safety Board said it was gathering information but had not immediately said whether it would investigate.