An air ambulance carrying six people vanished while flying from Bermuda to Boston, prompting a large‑scale search over the Atlantic. The Federal Aviation Administration notified the Coast Guard at 2 a.m. on Saturday that the Gulfstream G100, registered in Canada, had lost contact. A debris field was later located off Nantucket, according to Rear Admiral Matt Lake of the Coast Guard Northeast District.
Coast Guard crews, the New York National Guard’s Air Rescue Wing and Massachusetts authorities have scoured an area of 2,840 square miles (7,356 square kilometres) using fixed‑wing aircraft, helicopters, boats and cutters. The seabed around the debris field lies 80 to 90 feet (about 24 to 27 metres) deep, and sonar is being deployed to search the ocean floor. The operation is described as “large and demanding” and will continue until the searchers are confident no survivors remain on the surface.
Families of the four crew members and two passengers have been kept informed of progress by the Coast Guard. Transport Canada’s Minister of Transport, Steven MacKinnon, has also been monitoring the effort and working with authorities.
Air‑traffic audio suggests the pilot may have been “coming in blind” when a storm approached. The jet reported electrical problems, declared an emergency and descended sharply from about 24,000 feet to roughly 10,000 feet before disappearing. Former Inspector General of the Transportation Department Mary Schiavo said loss of navigation instruments in a storm could easily lead to disorientation.
Weather was not cited as a factor in the search.
