Six people left Bermuda on a flight built around saving a life.

They never reached Boston.

Now a vast search south of Nantucket has entered a more difficult phase after the U.S. Coast Guard confirmed that crews found a debris field from the missing air ambulance.

The people aboard remain unaccounted for. Coast Guard officials stressed Sunday that this is still a search for survivors.

The Canadian-registered Gulfstream G100 was operated by Latitude Air Ambulance.

It departed L.F. Wade International Airport in Bermuda at about 11:41 p.m. Eastern on Friday for Boston Logan International Airport.

ADVERTISEMENT

This was not an ordinary charter.

The manifest included two pilots, two medical workers, a patient and the patient’s family member.

The four crew members were Canadian. The two passengers were Bermudian.

Those details turn an aviation emergency into something even harder to contemplate: a patient and relative were already in the middle of a medical crisis when the aircraft disappeared.

The Associated Press reported that the Federal Aviation Administration alerted the Coast Guard after losing contact with the plane early Saturday. Air-traffic recordings indicate that the pilot reported an electrical problem and declared an emergency as the jet approached the Massachusetts coast.

A controller can be heard trying to clarify whether the aircraft was “coming in blind.” Preliminary flight data showed the plane descending sharply from roughly 24,000 feet to around 10,000 feet.

A storm was visible along the route, but investigators have not established what caused the plane to go down. The electrical trouble, radio traffic, descent and weather are pieces of the final timeline — not yet a final explanation.

By Sunday morning, the search had covered about 2,840 square miles over more than two days.

Aircraft, helicopters, boats and cutters have swept the water. The New York Air National Guard’s 106th Rescue Wing and Massachusetts authorities joined Coast Guard crews in the effort.

ADVERTISEMENT

The local Nantucket Inquirer and Mirror reported that the confirmed debris field is roughly 20 miles south of the island in water about 80 to 90 feet deep. Officials were moving sonar-equipped vessels into the area to search the seabed.

The search initially focused about 13 miles south of Nantucket. By late Saturday, aircraft and vessels had shifted from broad grid patterns to circling a more concentrated area farther offshore.

The Coast Guard cutter William Sparling continued working through the night. The local response also included crews from Station Brant Point, Air Station Cape Cod and Air Station Elizabeth City.

Nantucket police and harbormaster personnel checked the island’s southern shoreline. No black box had been recovered as of Sunday’s briefing.

Rear Adm. Matt Lake, commander of the Coast Guard’s Northeast District, called it a large and demanding operation.

Capt. John McTamney said crews would keep saturating the area until they were confident anyone on the surface would have been found.

That distinction matters.

Debris has been located, but the search has not been called off. The people aboard have not been publicly identified, and officials have avoided getting ahead of what search teams can prove.

The families, however, have been notified and are receiving updates.

Air ambulance crews do a job most people never see. They fly when somebody is sick or injured enough that an ordinary commercial trip is no longer an option.

ADVERTISEMENT

The pilots, nurses and respiratory specialists enter that uncertainty with the patient.

This crew was carrying two people toward care in Boston when something went terribly wrong over open water.

For now, the mission is simple even if the search is not: keep looking for all six.

Featured image based on a U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Rajesh Harrilal, public domain.

This is a Guest Post from our friends over at WLTReport. View the original article here.

 

Join The Conversation. Leave a Comment.