Searchers found a debris field off the coast of Nantucket, Massachusetts, from an air ambulance that was carrying six people when it vanished over the Atlantic on Saturday during a flight from Bermuda to Boston, the U.S. Coast Guard reported. Four Canadians and two Bermudian nationals were aboard, and their next of kin were notified as the search continued, the Coast Guard stated. One of its cutters would keep searching the water overnight and into Sunday.
According to the Coast Guard, the Federal Aviation Administration reported that the Gulfstream G100 lost contact very early Saturday morning. Air traffic audio indicates that it may have been coming in blind when a storm loomed ahead shortly before it vanished.
The pilot reported electrical problems and declared an emergency as the jet approached the coast, according to air traffic control audio posted by LiveATC.net. A controller can be heard asking the pilot, "Roger, you said you’re coming in blind. Is that what you said?"
Mary Schiavo, a former Inspector General of the Transportation Department, suggested that the plane may have lost its navigational instruments just as a storm moved across its path on radar. The plane also descended sharply from its cruising altitude of around 24,000 feet to around 10,000 feet, according to preliminary data from flight tracking site FlightRadar24.
Schiavo stated, "Something bad happened with this big drop, and they flew into this big storm. It’s a terrible place to have a loss of your instruments and be flying blind. It’s very easy to get disoriented and not know if you’re turning, climbing, descending, etc."
The National Transportation Safety Board said it was gathering information about the situation but did not immediately indicate if it would investigate.