Search for 6 aboard medical jet enters second day after crash near Nantucket
Authorities on Sunday declined to speculate on what caused a medical evacuation jet to crash off the coast of Nantucket on Saturday morning, as crews continue to search for the six missing passengers.Rear Adm.Matt Lake, commander of the Coast Guard’s Northeast District, said at a news conference Sunday that Coast Guard crews, Massachusetts authorities and the New York National Guard’s air rescue wing have searched roughly 2,840 square miles over more than 53 hours.“This is a large and demanding search area.
Our crews are employing fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters, boats and cutters to search the area,” Lake said.He added that authorities hope to use sonar to search the seabed.He declined to say whether the mission had shifted from rescue to recovery, which would mean no survivors are expected.
He also declined to provide the passengers’ names or ages “out of respect to the families and next of kin.”The U.S.Coast Guard launched a search Saturday morning and found a debris field approximately 20 miles off the coast of Massachusetts’ Nantucket island later that day.Air traffic controllers lost contact with the jet early Saturday as it flew from Bermuda to Boston.
One controller asked the crew whether it was declaring an emergency and “coming in blind,” according to audio obtained by NBC News.The six people on board were four Canadians and two Bermudians.A source familiar with the matter told NBC News the Bermudians were a patient and the patient’s son.The Bermudian government said Saturday that it was in contact with the families of those on board.
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