TORONTO — The U.S. Coast Guard suspended the search at sunset Sunday for six people aboard a Hamilton air ambulance that lost contact early Saturday on a flight from Bermuda to Boston, and Latitude Air Ambulance said all six are presumed dead.The jet, a Gulfstream G100 with tail number C-GRJP, is registered to Latitude and operates out of John C. Munro Hamilton International Airport. It left Bermuda’s L.F. Wade International Airport at 11:41 p.m. ET Friday, bound for Boston Logan International Airport, after flying to Bermuda to collect a patient and a relative. Four crew — two pilots and two medical staff — were Canadian. The two passengers were Bermudian.“Our four crew members were valued members of the Latitude family,” the company said late Sunday. “They dedicated themselves to providing care to people at some of the most difficult moments in their lives, and they were carrying out that mission when this tragedy occurred.” Latitude said it is supporting the grieving families, co-operating with authorities and asking for privacy. Operations manager Clarence Togeretz told The Canadian Press this was the first time the company had lost contact with one of its aircraft. The Hamilton firm has flown from the airport since 2009 and operates 10 aircraft on medical evacuation and repatriation contracts.The jet was approaching the U.S. coast just after 1 a.m. when its altitude fell from 24,000 feet to 11,000 feet in about two minutes, FlightAware data reported by National Post show. The Federal Aviation Administration issued a search-and-rescue alert at about 1:20 a.m. ET, and the company contacted the Coast Guard about 10 minutes later.Togeretz said Latitude lost contact around 1:30 a.m. as the aircraft neared Boston..A Nantucket Memorial Airport spokesperson told CBC the jet declared an emergency before contact was lost. Air-traffic audio captures a New York controller shortly after 12:30 a.m. asking whether the pilots were “coming in blind” and whether they were declaring an emergency. The controller said the transmission was weak, then tried repeatedly to raise the jet. No further response was heard.Rear Admiral Matthew Lake, commander of the Coast Guard’s northeast district, said he would not speculate on electrical trouble or weather, and that those questions were “up to the investigative efforts later.”“Suspending a search is not an easy decision,” Lake said. “We express our deepest condolences to the families and loved ones affected by the tragedy and our gratitude for our partner agencies who helped support search efforts.” Crews searched roughly 66 hours and more than 7,000 kilometres, using Coast Guard aircraft, helicopters, boats and cutters, with help from the New York National Guard’s air rescue wing and Massachusetts authorities. A debris field confirmed to be from the aircraft was found about 20 miles off Nantucket, in water about 80 to 90 feet deep. Recovered pieces were safeguarded for investigators. The cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder have not been found.
